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Watford General Hospital

Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region East Last inspected 22 Dec 2021

Location rating: Requires Improvement  View location on CQC

Location ratings by domain

Five CQC key questions

Ratings held for this CQC location under the inspection framework, last inspected 22 December 2021. Ratings extracted from individual reports are shown separately below.

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

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: 22 December 2021
Rating extracted from this report: Requires improvement
Actions indexed: 3 must-do 4 should-do

Read this inspection PDF

AI-extracted 3 Jun 2026

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 3 must-do 4 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 that the maternity wards are clean, and the delivery rooms have monitoring in place for Entonox levels.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2)
⚠ We found a build-up of grime and mould around the window sills of the delivery rooms on the delivery unit. The service had no monitoring in place for exhaled Entonox gas within small rooms with limited ventilation.
Must-do action 2 of 3
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure that there are enough midwives to provide a safe service for women and does not limit their choice of the delivery environment.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1)(2); 18(2)
⚠ The service did not have enough staff to care for women and keep them safe and offer a full range of choice in the delivery environment, leading to the temporary closure of the low-risk birthing unit.
Must-do action 3 of 3
Must do
Effective
The trust must ensure that policy and guidance documents are reviewed in line with the review date.
Regulation: Regulation 17(1)(2)
⚠ Policy and guideline documents were not always reviewed in line with their review date; 26 out of 69 maternity-specific guidelines and policies were outside their review dates.

Should-do actions (4)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 4
Should do
Well-led
The trust should consider how they display safety, quality and performance data to inform women and their families about the service.
Should-do action 2 of 4
Should do
Well-led
The trust should consider manager oversight where ward managers are absent, to monitor equipment checking and staff well being.
Should-do action 3 of 4
Should do
Effective
The trust should ensure that women are reviewed by an anesthetist within 30 minutes of requesting epidural pain relief.
Should-do action 4 of 4
Should do
Effective
The trust should ensure that all staff participate in the annual appraisal process.