Improving maternity services

Every year thousands of women give birth in our hospitals and community, and we want each and every one of those women to receive excellent care and have a positive experience with us. In the majority of cases this is happening, but not always and we know that isn’t good enough.   

We are committed to making improvements to your maternity services and, while we know there is more to do, we know that we are on the right path to improvement. Colleagues across the Trust are working hard every day to create the best environment and to provide the best care for babies, mothers and families in our hospitals. 
 
Through our Maternity Improvement Programme (MIP), we have reintroduced our Home Birthing service, significantly increased staff numbers, feedback from patient surveys has improved and is consistently positive. We have also heavily invested in our services, launching a new Fetal Medicine Unit and Neonatal Unit.

In 2023, the independent regulator of healthcare in England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) looked at maternity services at Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital and increased the rating at both sites from inadequate to requires improvement. In March 2025 the CQC recognised further improvements and increased our ‘effective’ ratings to ‘good’. In our latest inspection report, published in March 2026 the Trust’s overall rating remains as ‘Requires Improvement’ for maternity services.

Read the latest CQC report

 

Independent Review of NUH Maternity Services

Our maternity services are also subject to an Independent Maternity Review, led by Donna Ockenden, which began in September 2022 and is currently expected to be completed on 24 June 2026.

The review was established to listen to women and families, to fully understand their experiences, and to address concerns raised about the quality and safety of our maternity services. The review will make recommendations to help improve safety, quality and equity of our care.

We continue to work hard to make the necessary and sustainable improvements to our maternity services for our communities and also for our staff. We are working closely with Donna Ockenden and listening to family feedback to create services that our patients can rely on.

Below is a timeline of some of the key things that we have done to improve our maternity services so far.