- NHS hospital
The Royal Bournemouth Hospital
Report from 23 March 2026 assessment
Ratings - Maternity
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 16 and 27 September 2025.
Maternity services at the BEACH building at Royal Bournemouth Hospital are delivered through a new maternity and neonatal unit that opened on 31 March 2025, replacing the previous maternity services provided by Poole Hospital.
We carried out the assessment of this maternity service at its new location at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital, which had not been inspected or rated. The service ‘new build’ was designed to deliver around 4,400 babies.
The focus on the new maternity services was to provide a complete journey through antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care and to provide all emergency care at Royal Bournemouth Hospital. The aim was to provide fewer patient transfers between hospitals and better outcomes for expecting parents and their babies.
Maternity services were based in a purpose-built building and covered the first, second and third floor of the building. This included antenatal and ultrasound clinic areas, fetal medicine unit, vaccination centre, a day assessment, maternity triage area, antenatal and postnatal area, a co-located midwife-led birth centre, labour ward, bereavement suite and 2 maternity theatres. All elective and emergency caesarean sections were completed in the maternity theatres.
We rated the service as Requires Improvement.
During the assessment we found there were some concerns around safe care and treatment of women and babies. There were multiple unfilled shifts on maternity rotas and a high level of staff sickness due anxiety and stress, especially within maternity triage and the maternity advice line.
Staff told us they felt they were not always listened to when raising concerns, especially since the move of maternity services to The Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Staff felt there was a disconnect between managers and staff working clinically to the senior leadership team.
The policy around newborn security had not been updated to reflect the new building and there had been a lack of communication and training for staff on newborn abduction. There was no clear process or guidance to support staff in managing women who arrived out of hours in advanced labour and there had been no skills or drills carried out to safely manage women arriving to the building out of hours since the move to the new building.
Privacy and dignity were not always maintained within the maternity recovery unit.
The service monitored their performance through an electronic dashboard. The dashboard was reviewed and discussed monthly at the maternity governance meeting, with daily reviews of reported incidents. The outcome of these were also discussed at maternity performance meetings, with any learning shared as part of the weekly safety bulletin. However, the two months prior to the assessment we found there was an increase in rates of post-partum haemorrhage and 3rd and 4th degree tears. A review of data showed inconsistencies in rates reported.
At the time of the inspection, the service took immediate action to address the areas of concern.
However, women felt involved in planning and making decisions about their care which was responsive to their needs. They reported staff worked together and supported them to plan their care and the birth of their baby.
During the assessment we saw positive interactions between staff and women. Women told us they were happy with the care they received. The service gathered feedback from mothers regarding their care experiences, to drive improvements. This was carried out using a variety of sources, including patient feedback forms and through the maternity and neonatal voices partnership (MNVP).
Following the assessment and review of the information received there was a breach of regulation 17 for governance.
We refer to women in this report, but we recognise that some transgender men, non-binary people and people with variations in sex characteristics (VSC) or who are intersex may also use services and experience some of the same issues.
Safe:
Our overall rating of safe at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital was requires improvement. We looked at maternity services only and rated safe as requires improvement.
Effective:
Our overall rating of effective at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital was good. We looked at maternity services only and rated effective as good.
Caring:
Our overall rating of caring at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital was good. We looked at maternity services only and rated caring as good.
Responsive:
Our overall rating of responsive at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital was good. We looked at maternity services only and rated responsive as good.
Well-led:
Our overall rating of well-led at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital was requires improvement. We looked at maternity services only and rated well-led as requires improvement.
People's experience of this service
All women we spoke to were positive about the service. Women told us they felt safe, well supported and cared for by both the midwifery and medical teams. Risks were explained by staff, and they were involved in decision making.
Women reported they liked having their own room and that their partners could stay with them. Staff were described as professional, understanding and kind. However, there were reports that maternity staff were very busy and there were not enough staff. Feedback from women also described that at times there were long waits for midwives to answer call bells and delays in receiving pain relief medicine.