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Blackpool Victoria Hospital

Provider Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region North West Last inspected 28 Aug 2026

Location rating: Requires Improvement  View location on CQC

Location ratings by domain

Five CQC key questions

Ratings held for this CQC location under the Single Assessment Framework, assessed 28 August 2026. Ratings extracted from individual reports are shown separately below.

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

CQC assessments indexed

Single Assessment Framework

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

Requires Improvement
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. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is situated on the west coast of Lancashire and operates within a regional health economy catchment area that spans Lancashire and South Cumbria. The trust provides a full range of hospital services and community health services. These include adult and children’s services such as health visiting, community nursing, sexual health services and family planning, dental clinics and palliative care. The trust provides tertiary cardiac, haematology and adult cystic fibrosis services to 1.5 million population catchment area …

Ratings by service

Urgent and emergency services
Requires Improvement
Jul 2026
Medical care (Including older people's care)
Good
Jun 2026
Maternity
Requires Improvement
Dec 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 conducted this unannounced focused assessment on 18 and 19 March 2025 as a follow-up of the requires improvement rating and Section 31 letter of intent.
· 29 Aug 2025 · CQC source
Letter of intent Overall
We conducted this unannounced focused assessment on 18 and 19 March 2025 as a follow-up of the requires improvement rating and Section 31 letter of intent issued in 2022.
· 29 Aug 2025 · CQC source
Urgent enforcement Overall
This meant we did not need to take urgent enforcement action.
· 29 Aug 2025 · CQC source

Breaches identified (7)

Breach Responsive
There was a new breach of regulation for person-centred care.
Regulation: Regulation 9 (Person-centred care) · 28 Aug 2026
Breach Well-led
At this assessment we identified breaches of staffing and good governance regulation.
Regulation: Regulation 17 (Good governance) · 28 Aug 2026
Breach Well-led
The service had made improvements and we found areas had improved, however there were continued breaches of staffing and good governance.
Regulation: Regulation 17 (Good governance) · 28 Aug 2026
Breach Safe
At the last inspection the service was in breach of safe care and treatment, good governance and staffing.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) · 28 Aug 2026
Breach Responsive
The service was also in breach of person-centred care as people’s privacy and dignity was not always maintained in temporary escalation areas.
Regulation: Regulation 9 (Person-centred care) · 28 Aug 2026
Breach Safe
The service had made improvements and we found areas had improved, however there were continued breaches of safe care and treatment, premises and equipment and staffing.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) · 29 Jun 2026
Breach Safe
At the last inspection the service was in breach of safe care and treatment, good governance and staffing.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) · 29 Jun 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: 1 September 2022
Rating extracted from this report: Inadequate
Actions indexed: 10 must-do 3 should-do

Read this inspection PDF

AI-extracted 3 Jun 2026

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 10 must-do 3 should-do

Must-do actions (10)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 10
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure that there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experiences persons, to include resuscitation and safeguarding training.
Regulation: Regulation 18(1)
⚠ The service did not always ensure staff received mandatory training in key skills, including safeguarding and resuscitation, and leaders did not always ensure everyone completed it. The service did not have enough maternity staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm and …
Must-do action 2 of 10
Must do
Effective
The service must ensure that persons employed receive appropriate support, training, professional development, supervisions and appraisals to carry out the duties they are employed to perform. The trust must ensure there is sufficient capacity for clinical supervision to be delivered effectively by utilising the PMA roles or equivalent (Regulation 18(2)(a)).
Regulation: Regulation 18(2)(a)
⚠ The service did not always make sure staff were competent for their roles. Managers did not always appraise staff’s work performance and did not always hold supervision meetings with them to provide support and development. Managers could not always demonstrate that staff were experienced, qualified and had the right skills …
Must-do action 3 of 10
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure that they suitably assess and communicate the risks to the health and safety of service users receiving care and treatment and do all that is reasonably practicable to mitigate any such risk.
Regulation: Regulation 12(1) and (2)(a) and (b)
⚠ Staff did not always complete and update risk assessments for each woman and did not always take action to remove or minimise risks. There were ineffective processes to manage and mitigate the risks in relation to the lack of enough suitably qualified midwifery staff to care for women. Leaders did …
Must-do action 4 of 10
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure that the premises used by the service are safe for their intended purpose and used in a safe way
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(d)
⚠ The design, maintenance and use of facilities, premises and equipment did not always keep people safe. The bereavement room was unsuitable and the shower area contained a broken shower and door that was unsafe for use.
Must-do action 5 of 10
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure that the equipment used by the service for providing care and treatment is safe for use
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(e)
⚠ There was insufficient process to ensure staff had access to in date and safely checked equipment which exposed women and babies to a potential risk of harm. We observed out of date equipment within all the areas of maternity services. Electrical equipment tests were not always monitored and managed effectively. …
Must-do action 6 of 10
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure there is proper and safe management of medicines to include the storage of medicines and safe disposal of medicines no longer required
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(g)
⚠ The service did not always use systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer and store medicines. There was a lack of robust systems and processes to safely store medicines within maternity services which could expose women and babies to the risk of harm. Staff did not always store and manage …
Must-do action 7 of 10
Must do
Safe
The service must ensure that they assess the risk of, and prevent, detect and control the spread of, infections, including those that are healthcare associated. This must include ensuring appropriate cleaning schedules and cleaning is undertaken
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(h)
⚠ The service did not always control infection risk well. Staff did not always use equipment and control measures to protect women, themselves and others from infection. They did not always keep equipment and the premises visibly clean. There were insufficient processes in place to assess the risk and control the …
Must-do action 8 of 10
Must do
Effective
The service must ensure the care and treatment of service users must be appropriate, meet women and babies needs and reflect women’s preferences, including to support women and babies with breastfeeding and ensuring available access to expressed milk.
Regulation: Regulation 9(1)
⚠ Staff did not always support women with infant feeding and hydration techniques when necessary. The service did not always provide enough support to mothers wanting to breastfeed their babies, and there was no area on ward D where expressed breast milk could be stored or breast pumps located.
Must-do action 9 of 10
Must do
Well-led
The service must ensure that they assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided in carrying on of the regulated activity
Regulation: Regulation 17(2)(a)
⚠ The service did not always consistently monitor the quality and safety of care and treatment, and did not always use the findings to make improvements in outcomes for women. Leaders had systems for effective governance processes but not all risks were reported to allow oversight, and actions taken did not …
Must-do action 10 of 10
Must do
Well-led
The service must ensure that they assess, monitor and mitigate the risks related to the health, safety and welfare or service users and others who may be at risk which arise from the carry on of the regulated activity
Regulation: Regulation 17(2)(b)
⚠ Leaders had systems for effective governance processes but not all risks were reported to allow oversight. Staff did not always report all risks effectively, meaning leaders did not always have oversight of some risks, such as induction of labour delays and issues with bereavement paperwork. The service did not always …

Should-do actions (3)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 3
Should do
Caring
The trust should ensure that women are fully informed about the reason for remaining in hospital ahead of an induction.
Should-do action 2 of 3
Should do
Effective
The trust should consider utilising the trained professional midwifery advocates to support in professional development and supervisions.
Should-do action 3 of 3
Should do
Safe
The trust should consider involving all staff in baby abduction drills as per the providers policy.