Tameside General Hospital must improve its maternity services, says CQC

Maternity services at a Greater Manchester NHS trust have been downgraded from a previously “good” rating because a snap inspection found that the standard of care had deteriorated since the regulator’s last visit.1

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) downgraded Tameside General Hospital’s maternity services, run by Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, to “requires improvement” in safety and leadership after the inspectors, who gave two working days’ notice of their visit, found a range of failings.

The CQC found that staff did not always assess, monitor, or manage risks to women and babies or use tools to identify and escalate deterioration consistently. The service did not always operate effective and timely …