Source · CQC inspection

New Cross Hospital

Provider The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region West Midlands Last inspected 27 Mar 2026

Overall rating: Requires Improvement  View full CQC report

Domain ratings

Five CQC key questions
Safe
Requires Improvement
Effective
Requires Improvement
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Good

Current CQC assessment

Single Assessment Framework

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

Requires Improvement Assessed 27 March 2026
The service is not performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.
Date of assessment: 24 to 26 November 2025. New Cross Hospital provides a range of NHS hospital services. This assessment looked at emergency department care and treatment as part of the winter pressures inspection programme, which we rated as requires improvement. The rating from the emergency department has been combined with ratings of the other services from the last inspections. See our previous reports to get a full picture of all other services at New Cross Hospital. The rating of New Cross Hospital went down to requires improvement. In our …

Ratings by service

Urgent and emergency services
Requires Improvement
Sep 2025
Maternity
Good
Sep 2024

Regulatory breaches & enforcement

Current-framework "must do" equivalent

Breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, stated verbatim in the CQC assessment.

Letter of intent Overall
We issued the service with a letter of intent for possible urgent enforcement action on 2 December 2025 and issued a further letter of intent on 4 December 2025 as further questions needed answering.
· 27 Mar 2026 · CQC source
Warning notice Overall
Date of the on-site assessment was 29 October and 30 October 2024.
· 19 Feb 2025 · CQC source

Breaches identified (2)

Breach Caring
The service was in breach of the legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, dignity and respect, and governance.
Regulation: Regulation 10 (Dignity and respect) · 27 Mar 2026
Breach Overall
During the assessment we found 2 breaches of regulation.
· 19 Feb 2025

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 2 must-do 7 should-do

Must-do actions (2)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 2
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure women telephoning the triage service have rapid access to an initial assessment by suitably trained and qualified staff.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (2)
⚠ Women telephoning the triage service did not always have rapid access to a midwife. Telephone calls were regularly answered by administrative staff and were not prioritised in order of risk, or officially recorded. The telephone-line did not automatically divert to an alternative number or to voicemail if calls were not …
Must-do action 2 of 2
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure they maintain safe staffing numbers in all areas of the maternity service.
Regulation: Regulation 18 (1)
⚠ The service did not always have enough maternity staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. Minimum midwifery staffing levels were not always met, and some shifts went unfilled. Staff shortages led to staff …

Should-do actions (7)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 7
Should do
Safe
The trust should ensure that all staff complete mandatory training and role specific training in a timely way.
Should-do action 2 of 7
Should do
Safe
The trust should ensure all emergency equipment checks are carried out in line with trust policy.
Should-do action 3 of 7
Should do
Safe
The service should ensure the emergency buzzer is audible in every area.
Should-do action 4 of 7
Should do
Safe
The service should ensure the ventilation system in the consultant led delivery suite complies with the standards set out in the Healthcare Technical Memorandum and that all risks from waste aesthetic gasses are adequately mitigated.
Should-do action 5 of 7
Should do
Safe
The service should ensure all medicines are always stored safely.
Should-do action 6 of 7
Should do
Safe
The service should ensure there is a continued improvement in the system of review for all cardiotocography fetal monitoring, including appropriate documentation of Fresh Eyes checks.
Should-do action 7 of 7
Should do
Well-led
The service should ensure policies and guidelines are updated and available to staff within agreed timescales. Local guidelines differing from national guidelines should have been risk assessed.

Location details

CQC ID: RL403
Local authority: Wolverhampton
Region: West Midlands

Inspection report

Type: Location
Date: 16 December 2022
Rating: Good
Actions: 2 must-do 7 should-do
AI-extracted 2 Jun 2026