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Stroud Maternity Hospital

Provider Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region South West Last inspected 27 Aug 2026

Location rating: Good  View location on CQC

Location ratings by domain

Five CQC key questions

Ratings held for this CQC location under the Single Assessment Framework, assessed 27 August 2026. Ratings extracted from individual reports are shown separately below.

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

CQC assessments indexed

Single Assessment Framework

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

Good
The service is performing well and meeting our expectations.
We assessed Stroud Maternity Hospital on the 16 September 2025.We assessed 1 assessment service group at this location to review the progress made following our last inspection in December 2023 where we found breaches of Regulations 12 and 17. We found the service had made improvements since the last inspection.Stroud Maternity Hospital is part of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and they were registered with CQC in April 2010 to deliver the regulated activities: Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, Diagnostic and screening …

Ratings by service

Maternity
Good
Sep 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
We assessed 1 assessment service group at this location to review the progress made following our last inspection in December 2023 where we found breaches of Regulations 12 and 17.
· 27 Aug 2026
Breach Overall
We found breaches of Regulations 12 and 17.
· 27 Aug 2026

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: 20 March 2024
Rating extracted from this report: Requires Improvement
Actions indexed: 6 must-do 4 should-do

Read this inspection PDF

AI-extracted 3 Jun 2026

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 service must ensure staff are up-to-date with mandatory safeguarding training. Regulation 12(1)(2)(c).
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(c)
⚠ Staff training compliance on how to recognise and report abuse was poor. Training records showed that only 63% of staff at Stroud Maternity Unit (SMU), had completed Level 3 safeguarding children training. This was not in-line with the trust's target of 90% and the intercollegiate guidelines. Safeguarding Level 3 training …
Must-do action 2 of 6
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure staff complete daily checks of emergency equipment. Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(d).
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(d)
⚠ The service had enough suitable equipment, but they did not always check it or complete electrical safety checks to ensure equipment was safe and ready for use. We saw evidence that daily safety checks were completed for the month of November and up until our visit. All items were present …
Must-do action 3 of 6
Must do
Safe
The service must improve the governance of medicine management. Regulation 12(1)(2)(g).
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)(g)
⚠ The service did not always store and manage medicines safely. We saw medication that was out-of-date and still in use. This included Adrenaline that could be required in an emergency and had expired in November 2023, and 25 bottles of ultrasound gel that had expired in October 2023. There was …
Must-do action 4 of 6
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure that staff complete accurate risk assessments to determine if women are suitable for assessments and to birth at Stroud Maternity Unit. Regulation 12(1)(a)(b)
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(a)(b)
⚠ Staff did not always complete and update risk assessments to remove, minimise or manage risks. We asked the trust to provide audit results for the previous 6 months and although 100% of assessments were completed at the onset of labour, average compliance for assessments at 36 weeks was only 35%. …
Must-do action 5 of 6
Must do
Well-led
The service must ensure there is a process to ensure oversight and management of policies, guidance, and procedures to ensure they are reviewed in a timely manner, are clear and reflect national guidance Regulation 17(1)(2)(a).
Regulation: Regulation 17(1)(2)(a)
⚠ Leaders did not have an effective process to monitor policies and review dates and the ownership, oversight and management of guidelines and procedures at SMU was unclear. We noted that some policies and algorithms were out-of-date which meant they might not reflect evidence-based practice and national guidance.
Must-do action 6 of 6
Must do
Well-led
The service must ensure they have regular audit to demonstrate compliance with standards and procedures, to identify gaps, implement and monitor improvement Regulation 17(1)(2)(a)(b).
Regulation: Regulation 17(1)(2)(a)(b)
⚠ Leaders did not operate effective governance processes, throughout the service and with partner organisations. Maternity services had an audit plan for 2023-2024 but we noted that 7 were overdue at the time of our visit and we could not see any audit or evaluation of services provided at SMU. Equally, …

Should-do actions (4)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 4
Should do
Well-led
The service should consider the need for a separate risk register for Stroud Maternity Unit.
Should-do action 2 of 4
Should do
Well-led
The service should consider separating data collection between locations and to use this to drive improvements.
Should-do action 3 of 4
Should do
Well-led
The service should consider how they can improve the model of care to ensure it is fit for purpose.
Should-do action 4 of 4
Should do
Well-led
The service should consider how they can evaluate the additional services and use this to make improvements.