The Maternity service at Tunbridge Wells Hospital has been rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In an inspection in October 2024, the CQC found “significant improvements” had been made since its previous inspection in August 2023.

This followed an extensive programme of improvement addressing areas including: management of post-partum haemorrhage; maternity triage processes; category 1 and 2 c-section waiting times; staffing ratios; and improvements in data capture and reporting.

The CQC’s new report recognises a range of improvements, including:

• Strengthened oversight and management of governance
• A positive safety culture where incidents are investigated thoroughly, and learning is embedded to promote good practice and outcomes
• Routine monitoring of care and treatment to continuously improve outcomes for mothers and babies
• A culture of kindness and compassion, with staff making sure people’s care, support and treatment meet individual needs and preferences
• Improved focus on equality, diversity and inclusion, and personalised care plans based on individual needs and preferences for all women and birthing people.

The maternity unit at Tunbridge Wells Hospital provides care and support for more than 5,000 births a year.

Since the inspection in October 2024, the team have continued to make improvements: introducing a new bed management system to help manage capacity and give clinical staff more time to provide high-quality care; reviewing our structure for monitoring and improving quality of care; enhancing antenatal education for parents-to-be; and fostering a culture of listening to women and birthing people.

Rachel Thomas, Director of Maternity, said: “None of this would have been possible without the dedication of our maternity colleagues, and the input and engagement of the women and families we care for. I’d like to thank everyone who’s been involved so far and am looking forward to continuing this work and seeing what we can achieve together.

“We’re exploring how we can make sure women are getting the right care at the right time and improving our induction of labour process. We’re also developing a new maternity strategy which will set out our plans for the next few years and how we’ll achieve them.”

Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and Chief of Service for the Women’s, Children’s and Sexual Health Division, Miss Sarah Flint, said: “This has been a true team effort with involvement from a huge number of our staff including midwives, consultants, doctors, maternity support workers, admin teams and support staff. I’d like to personally thank each and every member of our maternity team for their hard work and dedication.”

Chief Nurse, Jo Haworth, said: “We’re delighted to have been upgraded by not one, but two CQC rating levels within just 14 months. I’d like to acknowledge how proud I am of our teams, who have worked tirelessly to implement such an incredible amount of positive change, which is reflected in our new report.

“We’ll continue to focus on improving the service, providing safe, compassionate and high-quality care to local families in order to reach our ambition of being ‘outstanding’.”