The order from the CQC came after the trust's chief medical officer, Dr Magnus Harrison, issued an apology to service users this week following complaints reported by the BBC.

The inspections of Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital were carried out in December 2024 and January 2025 following whistleblower concerns.

Ann Ford, CQC's director of operations in the North, said: ‘Prior to our visit, we had received a number of concerns from staff, people using the services and their families about the quality of care being delivered, including staff shortages in maternity at both hospitals. 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.'

A warning notice has been issued with both hospitals instructed to ensure they have safe staffing levels.

Regulation breaches were found in maternity services related to learning following incidents, risk management, safe environment, infection prevention and control, medicines management and management processes.

Breaches were also found in neonatal services relating to risk management, safe environment, infection prevention and control, medicines management and staffing.

Maternity services at both hospitals declined from good to inadequate overall. Neonatal services were rated as requires improvement.

The overall rating for Leeds General Infirmary declined from good to requires improvement and St James's University Hospital remained requires improvement. The rating for the trust remained good. 

Trust response

Chief executive of the trust, Professor Phil Wood said: ‘These reports have highlighted significant areas where we need to improve our maternity and neonatal services, and my priority is to make sure we urgently take action to deliver these improvements.'

Wood said the trust needed to be ‘better at listening to our staff and acting on their concerns' and apologised for having ‘fallen short on this'.

The chief executive said improvements had already begun, including the recruitment of 55 midwives. Wood said the trust remained 11 midwives short of its nationally recommended target but continued to recruit to meet this, with 35 newly qualified staff to begin in the autumn.

In addition, Wood said concerns with maternity culture were being addressed through more Freedom to Speak Up Champions, regular ‘Time to Talk' meetings and monthly open meetings with the senior leadership team.

He said infection control and cleanliness had been improved through the greater presence of matrons on wards, visits and inspections to ward areas and the replacement of damaged furniture and equipment. Medicine storage and management has also improved through a stock audit and comprehensive checks.

In addition, the trust has set up a Maternity and Neonatal Improvement Programme and is establishing a Programme Board which will have an independent chair and include service users and staff.