Published on: 29 January 2020
Maternity services at Sunderland Royal Hospital have been rated as the best in the NHS in a national survey which measures patient satisfaction in maternity care.
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) 2019 national survey of ‘women’s experiences of maternity care’ has revealed maternity services at Sunderland Royal Hospital as the best performing nationally with the most positive responses to the survey (88%) when compared to all other Trusts and a national average of 78%. Sunderland Royal Hospital has also been rated as the best performing across the whole of the North East and North Cumbria when it comes to the care and attention women received in hospital after the birth of their babies.
As well as scoring the highest of any hospital in the region for ‘care in hospital after birth’, Sunderland Royal Hospital also scored highly in a number of other categories, including:
- Partners being involved as much as they wanted (9.8 out of 10)
- Being treated with respect and dignity during labour and birth (9.8 out of 10)
- Staff introducing themselves before examination or treatment (9.8 out of 10)
- Being spoken to during labour and birth, in a way they could understand (9.8 out of 10)
- Being treated with kindness and understanding by staff after birth (9.4 out of 10)
- Thinking the hospital room or ward was clean (9.3 out of 10)
Sheila Ford, Head of Midwifery at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said: “To be rated nationally as the best performing Trust in the whole country is absolutely fantastic news for the team and shows that local mums are receiving the very best maternity care right here in Sunderland.
“This is testament to the hard work of our maternity team and shows the level of care, dedication and compassion that our staff show to all of the families who choose to deliver with us and I am extremely proud to be part of such a wonderful team. There are, of course, areas where we must improve further and we will be looking at the results in detail, alongside other sources of feedback to the Trust, to make sure we continue to listen, learn and continue to develop the very best
maternity services for local women in our area.”
Melanie Johnson, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said: “Independent surveys such as this, which collect information by asking people directly about their experiences, are very important to us. They help us to understand what matters most to patients about their care and treatment so that we can improve our services even further and make sure that we provide high quality and safe care to families who choose to have their care with us.
”We will be looking very closely at the survey information for our Trust to see how we can further improve maternity care but these latest results are very reassuring as they demonstrate that we are offering local pregnant women a very positive birthing experience. I would like to congratulate our maternity team for this fantastic result.”
The 2019 Maternity Survey summarises the experiences of 17,151 women who gave birth during January and February 2019. The survey asked women about their experiences of care across the pregnancy pathway from antenatal care, labour and birth, and postnatal care.
