Mums and newborns are being put at risk by West Middlesex University Hospital (WMUH), where the number of midwives falls “significantly below” the recommended level, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said.

In a report published by the health watchdog this week, the hospital, which serves 400,000 people in Richmond and Hounslow, was given amber lights in four out of five categories and an overall rating of requiring improvement.

The CQC found areas across the hospital, including accident and emergency (A&E), surgery, services for children and young people and end of life care, all required improvement.

While medical care, critical care and family planning were found to be good, the second best rating, changes were needed for services across the hospital to be safe, effective, responsive and well led.

The report also noted three never events in 2013-14 occurred in the maternity department and all three involved swabs being left inside patients.

Other key findings of the report include:

  • The number of midwives to birth ratio was reported as 1:36 – significantly higher than the expected standard of 1:28 and therefore creating a risk for patients;
  • Staff knew how to report incidents, but the level of incident reporting was low compared with the average and was a risk;
  • A&E had an insufficient number of consultants to provide cover for 16 hours a day, seven days a week;
  • In A&E, medicines were not always stored securely or checked regularly, which increases the risk of medicine misuse.

    Patient flow from the emergency department was also criticised in the report, with patients waiting an average of 290 minutes – more than double the national average of 140 minutes.

Despite the delays, inspectors concluded the department had a “calm and well-managed” response to the very heavy emergency demand on one night of the inspection.

The hospital was also commended for the dignity, respect and compassion given towards patients despite teams being under pressure.

Jacqueline Totterdell, chief executive of WMUH Trust, said the trust wanted people to receive the best care possible and was delighted the hard work and efforts of staff had been recognised.

She added: “Despite our obvious strengths and caring attitudes of staff, there are some areas requiring improvement.

“The report made clear the issues we must focus on and we have been working collaboratively with our health and social care colleagues to address some of these.”

Care and support given by mortuary staff to relatives after the death of a family member was also noted as “exemplary” and the trust was led by a “highly experienced team”.

The CQC report also added facilities were clean, well-maintained and hygienic across the trust.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals, said: “Our overall findings highlight the level of variation that can be found within the same organisation.

"There are a number of areas of good practice in the trust and we hope that the trust can quickly build on this and consistently deliver good services across the board.

“Staffing will remain an issue while the trust is going through this period of transition and the leadership needs to manage this and not divert from their action plan.”

To view the full report, visit cqc.org.uk/provider/RFW.