- NHS hospital
The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury
Assessment report published 31 July 2025
Ratings - Maternity
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 23 October to 24 October 2024.
We assessed service assessment group maternity at this location, to review the progress made against the warning notice that we served on the provider following the inspection in August 2023. We found that the service has made improvements and had met the actions of the warning notice.
We inspected all 33 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. We have combined scores for these areas with scores from the last inspection to give the rating.
At this assessment we identified a breach of regulation: 12 Safe Care and Treatment. We rated the location as Requires Improvement. We found a breach of regulation in relation to: timely reviews of high risk women and birthing people on the wards who were waiting for their labour to be induced.
Leaders aimed to ensure safe staffing numbers, but this was challenging. There were often staff shortages which meant staff were working under increased pressure to maintain safety. There were gaps in consultant cover for gynaecology which meant the obstetric consultant on-call was also required to cover. This often created delays for reviews of high-risk women and birthing people on the wards and those waiting for their labour to be induced. There were regular issues with flow and capacity.
Oversight and management of governance was improving but more work was needed to ensure audit was used effectively to mitigate risks and equipment was not always checked.
However, staff worked well together, and relationships were based on openness and honesty. Leaders were visible, responsive and inclusive and staff wellbeing was a priority. Medicine management and infection prevention and control had improved and there was improved and effective process to safeguard families.
Leaders were more focused on equality, diversity and inclusion and encouraged innovation.
People's experience of this service
Women and birthing people that we spoke with were happy with their maternity care and treatment. Women told us they were mostly seen and reviewed quickly by midwives, although there were comments about how busy staff were.
The CQC maternity survey included 196 responses from the experiences of women and birthing people who had given birth at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust during February 2024. The scores were generally very good, with no scores lower than the national average. For example, 9.7/10 gave positive feedback about their care. This was better than the national average.
We also reviewed the most recent maternity experiences provided from the Friends and Family Test (FFT) results. We saw there was a very poor response rate, although 97% of their most recent results were positive.
However, we could not see how feedback from women, birthing people and their families was weaved into the improvement work and used to ensure they had the best experience possible.