Luton North MP Sarah Owen has urged ministers to act after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) downgraded the maternity unit at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital to inadequate.
The CQC’s most recent inspection found maternity services at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, part of the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, had declined from requires improvement to inadequate after visits in November 2023.
Inspectors cited staffing shortages, inconsistent infection control, missed equipment safety checks and weaknesses in learning from incidents. The regulator issued a warning notice on safe staffing and said it would monitor the trust closely.
And releasing the results of the inspection in the summer, the CQC said an the checks were “prompted by concerns around the safety, culture, and management of the service, which were raised to CQC by whistleblowers.”
Raising the issue in the Commons today (September 3), Owen said: “Trauma during childbirth can have lifelong and debilitating impacts. Failing maternity services are felt by all, but especially by families from low-income and ethnic minority backgrounds.
“In my constituency, where too many already experience health inequalities, Luton and Dunstable Hospital’s maternity unit has recently been downgraded to ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission. Does the Minister agree with me that mothers and babies deserve better? What cross-departmental work is taking place to ensure that NHS trusts across the country improve maternity care?”
Responding for the government, care minister Stephen Kinnock said a new maternity and neonatal national taskforce will develop a plan to drive improvements, chaired by the health secretary and involving experts, families, charities and staff. He also said the wider independent maternity and neonatal investigation, chaired by Baroness Amos, would deliver urgent trust reviews and set national actions. Kinnock noted Ms Owen had met health minister Baroness Merron in June to discuss Luton services.
In Luton, the CQC reported 5,409 births in 2023 and highlighted capacity pressures, including occasions when women were redirected to other hospitals. The overall rating for Luton and Dunstable moved to requires improvement following the maternity downgrade.
The Trust said it was “incredibly disappointing” to receive the downgrade but that immediate actions had been taken since the inspection. It pointed to work under way to tackle discrimination reported by some staff, reduce midwifery vacancies and improve culture and training, while noting inspectors still found staff treated women with compassion and achieved good outcomes. The CQC also recorded that a new maternity unit is being built at Luton and Dunstable and is due to open in 2025.
The CQC’s intervention in Bedfordshire comes amid wider concern about maternity care quality nationally. Ministers have committed to publishing terms of reference for the investigation and to further inspections where needed.
Bedfordshire Hospitals said updates and the full reports are available on the CQC website and the trust’s site.
