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The Whittington Hospital

Provider Whittington Health NHS Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region London Last inspected 6 Mar 2026

Location rating: Requires Improvement  View location on CQC

Location ratings by domain

Five CQC key questions

Ratings held for this CQC location under the Single Assessment Framework, assessed 6 March 2026. Ratings extracted from individual reports are shown separately below.

Safe
Requires Improvement
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Requires Improvement

CQC assessments indexed

Single Assessment Framework

From 2024 CQC rates services through ongoing assessments rather than comprehensive inspections.

Requires Improvement
The service is not performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.
Whittington Hospital provides acute services to over 490,000 people living in Islington and Haringey, as well as other surrounding London boroughs including Barnet, Enfield, Camden and Hackney. From October 2024 to September 2025, there were over 100,000 attendances at the department. From October 2024 to September 2025, there were 18,617 ambulance attendances. From October 2024 to September 2025, there were 2766 patients attending with mental health conditions. On average 13% of patients attending the ED are admitted to the hospital. Whittington Health NHS Trust has an emergency department (ED) and …

Ratings by service

Urgent and emergency services
Requires Improvement
Oct 2025

Most recent report indexed for actions

The date and rating here are from an individual report, not necessarily the location's latest assessment. Report ratings are extracted with AI; verify the original PDF.

Type: Location
Date: 28 April 2023
Rating extracted from this report: Good
Actions indexed: 3 must-do 5 should-do

Read this inspection PDF

AI-extracted 3 Jun 2026

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 3 must-do 5 should-do

Must-do actions (3)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 3
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure medical staff are up to date with the maternity mandatory training modules.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(c)
⚠ Not all medical staff had training in key skills, with only 60% completing all mandatory training courses, which was below the trust’s 90% target.
Must-do action 2 of 3
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure that medical staff, maternity theatre and support workers staff were trained to safeguarding level 3.
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(c)
⚠ Not all staff had completed their level 3 safeguarding training; medical staff were only trained to level 2 safeguarding children, and staff in maternity theatre to level 2 safeguarding adult and children's training, against a trust target of 90% for level 3.
Must-do action 3 of 3
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure that the service uses a systematic approach for risk assessing women attending triage.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(b)
⚠ There was no systematic approach to prioritising women and birthing people who attended triage, and staff did not always use national guidance to assess and prioritise them based on clinical urgency.

Should-do actions (5)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 5
Should do
Well-led
The trust should ensure that staff complete patient records and risk assessments appropriately such as the Modified Early Obstetric Warning Score (MEOWS) and fresh eyes.
Regulation: Regulation 17(1)(2)(b)(c)
Should-do action 2 of 5
Should do
Well-led
The trust should ensure policies, guidelines and procedures are reviewed and follow national guidance.
Regulation: Regulation 17(1)(2)(a)(f)
Should-do action 3 of 5
Should do
Safe
The trust should ensure an environmental risk assessment is carried in all maternity areas and emergency call bells are ligature free.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(b)
Should-do action 4 of 5
Should do
Safe
The trust should ensure there is a dedicated maternity triage line and staffing cover to ensure the safety of women.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(c)(Regulation 18)
Should-do action 5 of 5
Should do
Caring
The service should consider a more suitable environment for women who have had a baby loss, until the formal plan for the bereavement suite comes to fruition.