Northampton General Hospital

Ratings

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Requires improvement

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Requires improvement

Our view of the service

Northampton General Hospital maternity services provide a comprehensive range of hospital based and community maternity care for women, babies and families across Northamptonshire, as part of University Hospitals Northamptonshire. The service works collaboratively across sites within University Hospitals Northamptonshire to deliver integrated maternity and neonatal services across the county, supporting women throughout the maternity pathway, including antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care. The service also provides care for babies with a wide range of needs, including those requiring additional neonatal and specialist support.

The service supports a diverse and growing population across Northamptonshire, including women from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, with significant South Asian, African and migrant communities. The population included areas of deprivation and rural communities, which contributed to variation in access, experience and outcomes for women and babies. Women accessing the service often presented with complex clinical and social needs, including safeguarding concerns, mental health needs and previous birth trauma. Community midwifery services played a key role in supporting families across the county, particularly those with additional vulnerabilities, promoting continuity of care and coordination between community and hospital services.

Care was delivered across a range of environments, including triage, delivery suite, birth centre, obstetric theatres and community settings. Multidisciplinary teams worked collaboratively across hospital and community services and across sites within University Hospitals Northamptonshire to maintain continuity, coordinate care and support safe outcomes for women and babies.

This assessment looked at maternity services, which we rated as good. The rating of maternity has been combined with the ratings of the other services from the last inspections. See our previous reports to get a full picture of all the other services. The rating of this hospital remains requires improvement.