- NHS hospital
Royal Derby Hospital
Report from 29 October 2025 assessment
Ratings - Maternity
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 16 and 17 December 2024. This was a scheduled assessment to review compliance with the urgent enforcement action we took in August 2023
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust provide maternity services for women in Derbyshire at Royal Derby and Queens Hospital. This service was last inspected in August 2023 and was required to take urgent action to as the Commission believed a person will or may be exposed to the risk of harm if we did not do so.
The service had made some progress since the last inspection to reduce the risk within the service. The risk or potential risk to women’s safety was still a concern. Due to this continued concern the Commission took urgent action as we believed that a person will or may be exposed to the risk of harm if we did not do so. The Commission placed 5 more conditions on the trust's registration.
The service did not have a coordinated approach for the care they provided. Visible leadership by the obstetric medical team was poor which meant appropriate actions and prompt responses to issues with the service were delayed at times. We were concerned that the system in place to identify, escalate and manage women and birthing women and their babies who require induction of labour was ineffective and not in line with national guidance. Handovers of care were also ineffective as the Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) tool was not fully completed or entered in to care records. The birthing centre did not have easily accessible resuscitation equipment if an emergency took place the trust could not be assured that the equipment could assessed quickly to keep mothers and babies safe.
However, the trust had met some of the conditions places on their registration at the inspection in August 2023. Senior midwives were in post, hourly ‘fresh eyes’ were completed hourly during intrapartum care, audits of PPH and MOH were completed monthly. Midwives had completed annual mandatory fetal monitoring training. These have been removed from the trust registration.
The culture within the service did not always promote the values of the trust or support staff to speak up. Whilst leaders had the required knowledge and experience, they did not promote a culture were staff felt empowered to speak up and or raise concerns.
People's experience of this service
Women and any family or carers with them were all positive about the staff treating them with warmth and kindness and providing effective care and treatment.
Records showed they were given the tests they needed usually promptly, and they felt staff were on hand if they needed them for help or support. The service had a poor learning culture.