Updated 20 September 2023
Pages 1 and 2 of this report relate to the hospital and the ratings of that location, from page 3 the ratings and information relate to maternity services based at Saint Mary’s Birth Centre.
We inspected the maternity service at Saint Mary’s Birth Centre, as part of our national maternity inspection programme. The programme aims to give an up-to-date view of hospital maternity care across the country and help us understand what is working well to support learning and improvement at a local and national level.
We will publish a report of our overall findings when we have completed the national inspection programme.
We carried out an announced focused inspection of the maternity service, following 48 hours’ notice. We only looked at the safe and well-led key questions.
We also inspected maternity at Leicester General Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary, run by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Our reports are here.
Leicester General Hospital – https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RWEAK
Leicester Royal Infirmary - https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RWEAA
How we carried out the inspection
Maternity services at St Mary’s Birth Centre include antenatal, intrapartum (care during labour and birth), and postnatal care. Services were provided in a dedicated centre on the premises of the Melton hospital site in Melton Mowbray. The trust rented the building from a private landlord. The midwifery-led unit provided intrapartum care for women and birthing people who met the criteria and were assessed to have low risk pregnancies.
The birth centre (BC) had 2 birthing rooms which both included a pool for labour/birth, and ensuite facilities. The BC also had an 8- bedded postnatal ward where staff provided extended postnatal care to women and birthing people, regardless of whether their babies had been born there. This was of particular benefit to women and birthing people with complex needs or those who needed additional support with breastfeeding.
One hundred and thirty-seven women and birthing people had been cared for in labour in the calendar year 2022.There were 95 births, and 42 were transferred to the main unit(s). This equated to a transfer rate of 30.7%.
You can find further information about how we carry out our inspections on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection.