Source · CQC inspection

Northampton General Hospital

Provider Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region East Midlands Last inspected 23 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

Requires Improvement

Current CQC assessment

Single Assessment Framework

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

Requires Improvement Assessed 23 March 2026

The service is not performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.

Northampton General Hospital provides general acute services for a population of 426,500 in West Northamptonshire. Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust provide critical care services at Northampton General Hospital for patients requiring Level 2 and Level 3 care including a general Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and critical care outreach. The new CCU opened on June 29, 2022. The CCU has 16 specialist beds of which five are isolation rooms fitted with clean air technology designed to prevent the spread of illnesses and support patients with immune issues.CCU care is staffed by …

Ratings by service

Medical care (Including older people's care)

Requires Improvement

Oct 2025

Critical care

Good

Aug 2025

Urgent and emergency services

Requires Improvement

Jul 2025

Medical care (Including older people's care)

Requires Improvement

Feb 2025

Medical care (Including older people's care)

Requires Improvement

Feb 2025

Urgent and emergency services

Requires Improvement

Feb 2025

Urgent and emergency services

Requires Improvement

Feb 2025

Surgery

Good

Mar 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.

Warning notice Safe

At this assessment we did not rate as we only looked at specific aspects in response to the Section 29a Warning Notice (WN).

· 3 Mar 2026 · CQC source

Warning notice Overall

We carried out this assessment of medical care only to check the quality of services in response to a Section 29A Warning Notice (WN) we served to the trust in March 2025 following an assessment in February 2025.

· 3 Mar 2026 · CQC source

Warning notice Overall

We carried out this assessment to check the quality of services in response to a Section 29A Warning Notice (WN) we served to the trust in March 2025 following an onsite assessment in February 2025.

· 3 Mar 2026 · CQC source

Warning notice Overall

We undertook the assessment to check the quality of services in response to a Section 29A Warning Notice (WN) we served the trust in March 2025 following an assessment in February 2025.

· 13 Nov 2025 · CQC source

Warning notice Overall

We carried out this assessment to check the quality of services in response to a Section 29A Warning Notice (WN) we served to the trust in March 2025 following an onsite assessment in February 2025.

· 13 Nov 2025 · CQC source

Warning notice Safe

At this inspection in February 2025, we rated the emergency department as \u201crequires improvement\u201d On 20 March 2025, we served a Section 29A Warning Notice to inform the trust that significant improvements were required to address concerns we found that could lead to patient harm, improve management of patient flow out of the emergency department and make sure patients\u2019 privacy and dignity needs were being met. > We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safe staffing and governance.

Regulation: Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) · 13 Aug 2025 · CQC source

Warning notice Overall

On 20 March 2025, we served a Section 29A Warning Notice to inform the trust that significant improvements were required to improve patient flow through medical care and to ensure timely discharges.

· 13 Aug 2025 · CQC source

Breaches identified (1)

Breach Overall

We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to infection prevention and control, medicines management, supporting staff with annual appraisals, and training and governance.

· 13 Aug 2025

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 6 must-do 4 should-do

Must-do actions (6)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 6

Must do

Safe

The trust must ensure the premises used by the service provider is safe to use for their intended purpose and are used in a safe way.12(2)(d)

Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(d)

⚠ Ward areas were not always clean, and some furnishings were not well-maintained. We identified a shower on the Robert Watson ward contained mould and other areas had dust and dirt not removed from general cleaning. We found damaged chairs on both wards which would impact the effectiveness of cleaning. Facilities …

Must-do action 2 of 6

Must do

Safe

The trust must ensure the reduction of the risk of, and preventing, detecting and controlling the spread of, infections, including those that are healthcare associated;12(2)(h)

Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(h)

⚠ The service did not always control infection risk well. Measures were not always in place for equipment and control measures to protect women, themselves and others from infection. Cleaning records were not up-to-date and demonstrated some areas were not cleaned regularly. Fridge temperatures checks were not consistently done. Pool equipment …

Must-do action 3 of 6

Must do

Safe

The trust must follow appropriate guidance in the proper and safe management of medicines;12(2)(g)

Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(g)

⚠ The service did not always use systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines well. We found recording errors for controlled drugs (CD) on Labour ward, such as Pethidine only signed by one midwife, and the controlled drug book not checked for 5 days. Six epidural medicines …

Must-do action 4 of 6

Must do

Safe

The trust must ensure the security of the unit is reviewed in line with national guidance.Regulation12

Regulation: Regulation 12

⚠ There was a new baby abduction policy, but since its introduction, there had been no simulations to ensure staff understanding of the policy or that it was embedded into daily practice. This meant the trust could not be assured that staff knew how to respond in the event of baby …

Must-do action 5 of 6

Must do

Safe

The trust must ensure staff complete mandatory, safeguarding and maternity specific training in line with the Trust’s own target.Regulation12(1)(2).

Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)

⚠ Not all staff were up to date with mandatory training, with overall compliance at 79.7% (below the 85% target). Infection prevention and practice training compliance was 43.5% for midwifery staff and fire safety training was 74.5%. Medical staff overall compliance was 69.7% (below target), with specific shortfalls in safeguarding adults’ …

Must-do action 6 of 6

Must do

Safe

The trust must ensure staff complete regular skills and drill training, especially in relation to birthing pool evacuation.Regulation12(1)(2)(c)

Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(c)

⚠ There were gaps in staff completing regular skills and drills training, specifically in relation to birthing pool evacuation. Pool evacuation training was a module in point-of-care simulations which had been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and again in April 2022. Face-to-face training had not been completed since the beginning of …

Should-do actions (4)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 4

Should do

Safe

The trust should ensure there are the required staff to implement a robust system in maternity triage to include escalation process, monitoring and documentation.

Should-do action 2 of 4

Should do

Responsive

The trust should ensure the required staffing to enable women to have a choice of birthing options which include the Barratts birthing unit and home birthing.

Should-do action 3 of 4

Should do

Well-led

The trust should ensure the culture of the service continues to be addressed to ensure staff are listento and measures put in place to improve the well being of staff.

Should-do action 4 of 4

Should do

Well-led

The trust should ensure systems were in place to ensure audits were consistently reviewed and actions taken to address any identified concerns.