The inspections of services at Nottingham City Hospital and Queen's Medical Centre in June and July 2024 were carried out after concerns were received from whistleblowers and identified seven breaches.

Helen Rawlings, interim director of network operations in the Midlands, said: ‘When we inspected maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in June and July last year, we found some improvements had been made, although more changes were needed to improve the standard of care women, people using the services and their babies were receiving.'

At Nottingham City Hospital, CQC identified four breaches of regulation in safe care and treatment relating to infection control procedures, equipment safety, medicines and expressed milk storage.

At maternity services at Queen's Medical Centre, CQC identified three breaches of regulation in safe care and treatment, regarding infection control procedures, equipment safety and medicines management and storage.

The delay in publication of the reports has come under criticism from Donna Ockenden who is leading a review into maternity deaths and injuries at the trust.

Anthony May, chief executive at Nottingham University Hospitals said: ‘I would like to thank the CQC for their inspection in 2024. The findings detail some of the improvements that we see in the delivery of our services but also underline that we have further to go. 

‘I recognise that these inspections took place after colleagues in maternity services contacted the CQC directly. I want to thank them for their courage in speaking up. 

‘All breaches of regulation raised during the inspection have been addressed and we have provided the CQC with an action plan to assure them of compliance. ‘