The regulator said ‘only minimal improvements had been made, with the services remaining in breach of regulations around staffing and good management of the service, and were now also in breach of regulations relating to safe care and treatment'.

Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC deputy director of hospitals in the East of England, said: ‘We were deeply concerned that improvements in maternity services were happening too slowly, with little change since our previous inspection. While we found caring staff, poor leadership meant both they and the women using the services were being let down.'

Jenkinson said low staffing was impacting on women's services leading to delays at both hospitals.

Inspectors saw 451 triage calls out of 2,097 unanswered or abandoned by the caller due to wait times at Bedford Hospital and delays.

In addition, delays and suspensions to caesarean sections were observed along with frequent diversions of services to other hospitals.

Services were also not learning effectively from incidents, the CQC said, with over 1,500 remaining open at Luton and Dunstable Hospital at the time of inspection.

David Carter, chief executive at Bedfordshire Hospitals, said: ‘We are sorry where care has not met the standard our community rightly expects, and our leadership teams will continue to work hard in removing obstacles to allow our maternity colleagues to provide the best care.

‘Since last summer's inspection we have strengthened staffing and senior clinical oversight, expanded staff development and wellbeing support, and opened state‑of‑the‑art maternity facilities in our new Acute Services Block at the L&D. At Bedford, we've introduced a dedicated telephone triage midwife, new "mini switchboard" phone triage service and a private triage area to improve access, privacy and dignity. We will keep our community updated as we deliver further improvements.'