Publish date: 11 January 2023
National maternity survey showcases quality of care at Northumbria Healthcare
Patient experience of maternity care at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust continues to go from strength to strength, according to a major national survey.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today (Wednesday, January 11) published the results of the 2022 Maternity Survey, with the report summarising the experiences of almost 21,000 women who gave birth across the country in February 2022.
Last year, Northumbria Healthcare bucked the national trend with positive feedback on postnatal care, ranking among the best in the country despite the overall national results suggesting that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic had led to poorer experiences for some.
Now, the trust has been featured in an outliers report for 2022 for its performance being ‘better than expected’, because the proportion of women who answered positively to questions about their care during labour and birth, and on the ward after the birth, ‘was significantly above the trust average’.
Northumbria Healthcare is one of just seven trusts in the positive outliers report, with the survey involving a total of 121 NHS trusts across England. It is also the only one featured from the North East, although North Cumbria was also a positive outlier. This is against a national backdrop of a ‘decline in positive maternity experiences’, according to the CQC.
The questions in the survey are split into eight sections covering the full maternity journey and the trust’s postnatal care was once again highlighted, with the score for ‘Care in hospital after the birth’ being ‘much better than expected’ in comparison with other trusts. The responses to ‘Feeding your baby’ ranked the trust as ‘better than expected’.
Northumbria Healthcare’s head of midwifery, Jenna Wall, said: 
“Our staff continue to work incredibly hard to deliver safe, compassionate and personalised care to our patients, so it is reassuring that this is appreciated by those giving birth with us and that they are having a positive experience under our care.
“Patient experience and feedback are very important at the trust, so we will also use the report to help us to improve even further and focus on those areas where we can make things better for patients.”
The survey shows that the trust’s results were not ‘worse’, ‘somewhat worse’ or ‘much worse’ than the majority of trusts in any of the sections or individual questions.
Northumbria’s results were ‘much better’ than most for one question, ‘better’ for seven questions and ‘somewhat better’ for three questions, and about the same for the remaining 40 questions.
All NHS trusts that had at least 300 live births were eligible for the survey. Women aged 16 years or over who had a live birth between February 1 and 28, 2022, (and January if a trust did not have a minimum of 300 eligible births in February) were invited to take part. A total of 150 Northumbria Healthcare patients responded.
For more on the trust’s maternity services, visit www.
Media contact
Ben O’Connell, media and communications officer, Northumbria Healthcare
Benjamin.O'Connell@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.ukor 07833 046680.