Publish date: 9 February 2024
National survey reveals positive maternity experience for patients at Northumbria Healthcare
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today published the results of its 2023 survey of women’s experiences of maternity care in England. In total, the survey received responses from 25,515 women who had a baby in January and February last year.
Last year Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust demonstrated its maternity care was going from strength to strength, ranking among the best in the country despite the overall national results depicting a picture of poorer experiences for some.
Now, the trust has been featured in an outliers report for 2023 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 eight trusts in the positive outliers report, with the survey involving a total of 121 NHS trusts across England. This is against a national backdrop of a ‘deterioration in maternity experiences’, according to the CQC.
The questions in the survey are split into eight sections covering the full maternity pathway. Highlights saw Northumbria performing exceptionally in the ‘staff caring for you’ and ‘care in hospital’ areas. The trust scored much better than expected when involving patients in decisions about their care and staff taking the time to introduce themselves. The trust also scored better than expected for its ability to deliver kind, compassionate and understanding care, as well as involving partners in labour and birth.
Northumbria Healthcare’s head of midwifery, Katy Lissaman, said: “With even more respondents in this year’s survey, I’m delighted to see that we have been able to improve on last year's already high standard. To be included in the positive outliers again for a second year running truly is testament to the dedication of our maternity teams.
“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 our 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 two questions ‘better’ for ten questions and ‘somewhat better’ for four questions, and about the same for the remaining 38 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, 2023, (and January if a trust did not have a minimum of 300 eligible births in February) were invited to take part. A total of 164 Northumbria Healthcare patients responded.
For more on the trust’s maternity services, visit www.
Media contact
Laura Keen, external communications and marketing manager
laura.keen2@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk or