Two Leeds hospitals’ maternity services rated inadequate over safety risks

The care of women and babies at two Leeds hospitals presents a significant risk to their safety, the NHS regulator has said, after the preventable deaths of dozens of newborns.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) demanded urgent improvements to maternity services at Leeds general infirmary and St James’s hospital as it downgraded them to “inadequate”.

A BBC investigation this year found that the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers may have been preventable at the two hospitals between January 2019 and July 2024.

The hospitals, run by Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust, are the latest to be engulfed by a maternity scandal that has revealed catastrophic failings in Nottingham, Shrewsbury and Telford, Morecambe Bay, east Kent and others.

The downgrading of maternity and neonatal services in Leeds follows unannounced inspections by the CQC in December and January.

Ann Ford, a director of operations at the CQC, said it had received concerns from staff, patients and families about safety and staffing levels at the two hospitals.

She said: “During the inspection the concerns were substantiated, and this posed a significant risk to the safety of women, people using these services, and their babies as the staff shortages impacted on the timeliness of the care and support they received.”

Inspectors found dirty areas on the maternity wards of both hospitals, unsafe storage of medicines, a “blame culture” that left staff unwilling to raise concerns, and short-staffed units.

On the neonatal wards, which care for the most vulnerable newborns, the CQC found they were understaffed and infants needing special care were being transported unsafely from one hospital to another.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 June 2025