Trust warned over A&E and maternity failings

A major acute trust has been served warning notices to urgently improve its maternity and emergency care services after making “insufficient” progress.

The Care Quality Commission has issued two warning notices requiring significant improvements at St George’s Hospital, following inspections carried out between October 2024 and February 2025.

St George’s University Hospitals Foundation Trust, which has a £1.2bn turnover, has submitted an action plan and made some changes to keep patients safe, according to the CQC.

Maternity at St George’s Hospital improved from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”. But the CQC said “although some improvements had been made, they were insufficient” and the service remained in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The CQC said “areas of concern… had not been resolved” since the last inspection in 2023, including staffing levels, staff not completing risk assessments or triaging patients safely, and there being “no stable leadership team” within the service.

A “significant number” of patients also told inspectors their ethnicity meant “they did not feel heard or understood”, inspectors added.

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Source: HSJ, 28 August 2025