- NHS hospital
Princess Royal University Hospital Also known as Farnborough Hospital
Assessment report published 4 March 2026
Ratings - Maternity
Our view of the service
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides maternity services at both the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) and King’s College Hospital sites. From January to December 2024, there were 3,422 babies born at Princess Royal University hospital.
We last inspected maternity services at Princess Royal University Hospital on 8-9 August 2022. This was a comprehensive inspection of all domains and maternity was rated requires improvement overall.
We conducted this unannounced focused assessment on 8 and 9 April 2025 to follow-up on the 2022 inspection findings. As this was a focused assessment, we only looked at the safe, responsive and well led domains, where there were breaches of regulation. We did not reassess the effective and caring domains, which were rated good at our previous inspection in August 2022.
We visited the following areas as part of the assessment:
Postnatal and antenatal wards, triage and assessment areas, the early pregnancy unit, the theatre and recovery area and labour suite. We also looked at bereavement facilities, and outpatient areas including antenatal consulting areas and pregnancy scanning.
We spoke with members of the maternity team including maternity assistants, junior doctors, registrars, consultant obstetricians and anaesthetists, student midwives, band 6 and 7 midwives, specialist midwives, consultant midwives, safeguarding midwives, matrons and the quadrumvirate.
Safe: We looked at maternity services only and rated Safe as Requires Improvement. Systems, pathways and transitions were not always in line with guidance. Staff did not always manage clinical risks in a timely way. Safeguarding guidance was not in date. The facilities did not always meet the needs of people. Staff did not always follow infection control guidance. However, the service had a good learning culture. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Staff managed medicines well.
Responsive: We looked at maternity services only and rated Safe as Good. Women were involved in decisions about their care. The service provided information which was accessible and supported people to understand their care. Women knew how to give feedback and were confident the service took it seriously and acted on it. Women received fair and equal care and treatment. The service worked to reduce health and care inequalities through training and feedback. Women were involved in planning their care and understood options around choosing to decline or withdraw from care. However, the service was not always easy to access, and care was not always provided in a timely way.
Well-led: We looked at maternity services only and rated Safe as Requires Improvement. The culture within the service did not always foster collaboration with staff. Leaders were not always visible. Staff did not always feel valued and respected. Risk was not always managed in a timely manner. However, worked collaboratively with partners. There was a culture of continuous improvement with staff given time and resources to try new ideas.
We rated the service as requires improvement. The service had made improvements and is no longer in breach of the regulation for receiving and acting on complaints. However, the service remained in breach of the regulations safe care and treatment and good governance.
We refer to women in this report, but we recognise that some transgender men, non-binary women and women with variations in sex characteristics (VSC) or who are intersex may also use services and experience some of the same issues.
People's experience of this service
We received feedback from 6 women who had used the maternity service. Women we spoke with onsite reported receiving supportive and kind care from staff, with cases of poor staff attitude. They also reported staff being accommodating to their needs. One woman reported feeling “welcomed and supported” every time she attended the unit, with staff not just providing good care but also “educational support”. They also reported feeling “involved in decisions” and felt reassured as their birthing partners were able to stay on the ward and provide extra support. Pain relief was reported as being offered and provided when required. Overall women reported a positive experience whenever they accessed the service.
Women had access to contribute and feedback about their experiences through the local maternal and neonatal voices partnership (MNVP) who also fed back to the trust regularly.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) coordinates a national survey annually to look at the experiences of pregnant women and new mothers who used NHS maternity services. We reviewed the results of the maternity services survey 2024. The survey gathers feedback from women about their experiences with maternity services. The trust performed about the same as other trust in 22 of the questions in 2024 which was an improvement of only 20 questions in 2023.