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Royal Hampshire County Hospital

Provider Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region South East Last inspected 26 Nov 2025

Overall rating: Good  View full CQC report

Domain ratings

Five CQC key questions
Safe
Good
Effective
Outstanding
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.

Good Assessed 26 November 2025
The service is performing well and meeting our expectations.
Date of assessment: 9 July 2025. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of NHS hospital services. The rating from maternity 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 Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.Royal Hampshire County rating was Good. In our assessment of maternity services, we found the service was rated as Good.

Ratings by service

Maternity
Good
Nov 2025

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.

Breaches identified (2)

Breach Overall
The breaches were around the reduced quality of care or people’s experiences.
· 26 Nov 2025
Breach Overall
This was a follow up assessment following breaches of regulations found in November 2021.
· 26 Nov 2025

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 5 must-do 4 should-do

Must-do actions (5)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 5
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure regular checks on emergency and essential equipment are carried out.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (1)
⚠ Staff did not always complete daily safety check of specialist equipment. For the month of November, there were 10 gaps in the daily task schedule for checking the postnatal ward resuscitaire and two gaps in checking the neonatal emergency trolley. This presented a risk that equipment might not be working …
Must-do action 2 of 5
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure the Day Assessment Unit has an effective and working emergency call bell system to ensure the safety of patients in an emergency and the safety of staff who are lone working in that area.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (1) & 12 (2)
⚠ The emergency call bell system in the DAU was not working at the time of our inspection. Staff told us they had raised this as an incident but had not been addressed. There was a risk women’s condition could deteriorate while the midwife was out of the room.
Must-do action 3 of 5
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure national guidelines are followed when screening women for a risk of domestic violence and trust policy reflects this.
Regulation: Regulation 13 (1) & 13 (2)
⚠ We did see one record where the patient had not been asked a DV (Domestic Violence) question at their antenatal appointment, so we cannot be assured that all women are having risks identified or being kept safe.
Must-do action 4 of 5
Must do
Well-led
The trust must ensure data is managed so it is up to date, reliable and can aid decisions about risk and performance in the service. Midwifery red flag reporting must accurately reflect risk.
Regulation: Regulation 17 (1)
⚠ The service collected data but it was not always managed so that up-to-date, accurate information was available to understand performance and make decisions and improvements. The maternity dashboard was not always kept up to date or shared with staff. The incorrect reporting of red flags meant the extent of level …
Must-do action 5 of 5
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure that staffing levels are managed across the midwifery service to ensure the safety of women and babies.
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. Data from the trust showed for the four months prior to the inspection ratios were worse than recommendations; …

Should-do actions (4)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 4
Should do
Effective
The trust should ensure there are clinical guidelines for reduced fetal movements, out of hours attendance and the triage system.
Regulation: Regulation 12
Should-do action 2 of 4
Should do
Effective
The trust should ensure all staff receive an appraisal
Regulation: Regulation 12
Should-do action 3 of 4
Should do
Safe
The service should ensure the four recommendations to reduce the risk of COVID-19 for women from a BAME background are implemented.
Regulation: Regulation 12
Should-do action 4 of 4
Should do
Safe
The trust should ensure staff complete mandatory, safeguarding and any additional role specific training in line with the trust target.
Regulation: Regulation 18

Location details

CQC ID: RN541
Local authority: Hampshire
Region: South East

Inspection report

Type: Location
Date: 28 January 2022
Rating: Requires improvement
Actions: 5 must-do 4 should-do
AI-extracted 2 Jun 2026

Related PFD reports

2023-0346 — Sebastian Daniels (Sep 2023)
2018-0232 — Nigel Malloy (Jul 2018)