A RANGE of maternity service improvements have been recognised at a hospital in a national survey.  

The Care Quality Commission Maternity Survey 2022 highlighted improvements across multiple care areas at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow compared to last year.

The results came from 150 eligible women who answered questions about the care and treatment they received at antenatal check-ups, during labour and postnatal care.     

Out of 45 questions asked in 2021, this year's ratings where the same or higher in 93 per cent of cases. 

There were only three questions which were lower, but these were marginal, with the score against reasons for delayed discharge scoring 6, previously 6.1, rating for being given help if needed to contact the midwifery team after going home scoring 8.3, previously 8.4, and being delivered information about physical recovery after birth rating 7.1 from 7.5 in 2021. 

Of the six new questions posed, five had an average score of 8.4.

The sixth, which was in relation to partners or someone else close being able to stay as long as they wanted to, scored 1.8.   

Giuseppe Labriola, director of midwifery, gynaecology and assistant chief nurse at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, said: "Our teams continually strive to improve our maternity service for the women and pregnant people in our care, and I am pleased to see their efforts reflected in these survey results.  

"We will continue to focus on developing our service for the future in line with the feedback we have received."

Sharon McNally, chief nurse and deputy chief executive at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, said: "We take great pride in the maternity services we deliver, and we continually seek to improve our standards for the women and pregnant people using our maternity services, and their partners and families too.     

"The results of this survey will help us to build on our successes and help us identify areas for improvement so that we can continue to deliver increasingly high standards across our maternity care services." 

For further information on maternity care services at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, visit pah.nhs.uk/maternity-services.