The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has upgraded the rating for maternity services at Worthing Hospital, run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, from requires improvement to good, following an inspection in February last year.
This inspection was carried out in response to ongoing concerns about the service and to follow up on improvements CQC told the trust to make at previous inspections.
CQC found that there had been improvements since the previous visits; however, some breaches of regulations were identified relating to safe care and treatment and the effectiveness of departmental management, which has negatively impacted on other key question ratings.
Following this latest inspection, CQC has upgraded how well-led the service is from requires improvement to good. Safe is re-rated as requires improvement. Caring is re-rated as good. Responsive and effective were not rated at the previous inspection and are rated as good
The overall rating for Worthing Hospital remains rated as requires improvement.
The onsite inspection took place in February 2025 and CQC has been monitoring the service closely to ensure that the areas identified for improvement are addressed. While this inspection did find evidence of progress it is vital that any improvements made are sustained and CQC will be returning to reinspect the trust’s maternity service in the near future. The views and experiences of people using services directly inform CQC’s assessments of quality and safety. Anyone who wishes to share feedback about their maternity care at University Hospitals Sussex can contact CQC directly with that information.
Amanda Williams, CQC deputy director of hospitals, secondary and specialist care in Sussex, said:
"When we inspected Worthing Hospital’s maternity services, we saw staff working hard to support women throughout their pregnancy journey. The service offered specialist midwives for mental health, bereavement and safeguarding, and provided 24/7 access to emergency mental health support.
"Leaders have worked to create a more positive culture where staff feel confident to speak up and share ideas. The trust appointed an independent freedom to speak up guardian, and staff told us they now feel safe raising concerns with managers. This open approach helped the service learn and improve continuously, making care more effective and responsive.
"The service worked closely with the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership to make sure women's voices shaped how care was delivered. Women told us they felt involved in decisions about their care and didn't feel anxious about raising concerns. Feedback surveys consistently showed above 90% positive feedback.
"However, we found some areas where improvements are still needed, including more work required to improve policies and the trust’s audit programme. There was also only one dedicated obstetric theatre for planned and emergency caesarean sections where national guidance requires two. This meant if two women needed an emergency caesarean at the same time, one of them would have to be transferred elsewhere and their emergency treatment could be delayed.
“We have asked the trust for an action plan to address some of the concerns we found during our inspection and we’ll continue to monitor the service to ensure ongoing improvements continue and women are safe while this happens.”
Inspectors found:
- The service ensured there were enough experienced staff to deliver safe care and recently introduced maternity nurses, easing pressure caused by midwifery vacancies.
- Staff used daily huddles and structured handovers to maintain continuity of care and shared information across teams, so people only needed to tell their story once.
- Staff actively supported women to improve their overall health, displaying posters to encourage smokers to switch to vaping and running wellbeing clinics that offered healthy eating advice.
- The service provided a dedicated bereavement suite where women and families could spend time with their baby after a death, including access to specialist equipment such as cold cots that allowed families to stay with their baby for several days.
- Staff had developed thoughtful initiatives like 'hope boxes' for women who would be legally separated from their babies after birth. These contained items from the baby and mother.
However, inspectors also found:
- Leaders failed to ensure staff had access to up-to-date guidance and allowed many policies to remain significantly overdue for review, including the labour induction policy. As a result, staff may have delivered care using outdated processes or procedures.
- The department failed to identify and mitigate ligature risks in some areas, leaving people at risk of self-harm or suicide without adequate protection.
- The department did not routinely carry out or embed audits and had no audit schedule in place. For example, leaders did not audit sepsis cases, meaning they lacked data on case numbers and actions taken.