Gateshead maternity unit tops national rankings for second consecutive year

The maternity unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead has climbed to the top of the country's rankings, according to the Care Quality Commission's patient survey. For the past three years, the unit has placed among the nation's five best. For the last two years, it has held the number one position.

Karen Parker, the associate director for midwifery and special care, credits the achievement to something straightforward: listening to the families who use the service. When she and her team learned the results—announced before Christmas—their first instinct was not to rest. Instead, they asked what still needed fixing. "The first and most important thing is that this is coming from what our families and our parents tell us," Parker said. "That's absolutely brilliant."

The trajectory matters. Gateshead moved from sixth place to fifth, then to first, then held that position again. Parker describes the unit as a small operation, but one where staff choose to stay and where students actively seek placements. The team functions, she says, like a family. This stability in personnel—rare in an NHS under constant strain—appears to be foundational to the service's reputation.

The timing of Gateshead's success is pointed. Across England, maternity services are fracturing under pressure and scandal. Donna Ockenden, a respected senior midwife and investigator, has just been appointed to lead an inquiry into maternity services in Leeds. Similar investigations are underway in Nottingham and at the national level. None of the hospital trusts that have faced such scrutiny are located in the North East. Parker and her colleagues monitor these inquiries closely, extracting lessons even from failures elsewhere.

The physical reality of Gateshead's unit complicates the picture. The hospital's maternity building is more than 70 years old. The NHS faces relentless financial pressure across the board. The unit cannot expand space for partners to stay overnight, cannot easily modernize its infrastructure. Parker acknowledges these constraints plainly. "We know there are things we can't change," she said. "So we have to become a bit creative." Where accommodation is possible, the team finds ways to support families staying over. The limitations force innovation rather than excuse mediocrity.

The unit's approach to improvement is systematic. When survey results arrive, staff and the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership—a patient advocacy group embedded in governance—create action plans. They identify where performance fell short and build responses. This year, questions about mental health support during pregnancy prompted the unit to develop a new maternal mental health service pathway. The survey becomes a blueprint rather than a trophy.

Parker emphasizes that the team does not claim perfection. "We know we don't get everything right, but it's always about how do we improve," she said. Across the North East and North Cumbria, units share learning openly, supporting one another. The regional approach treats the NHS not as a collection of competing institutions but as an interconnected system where success in one place benefits others. For Gateshead, the ranking reflects not a moment of achievement but a sustained commitment to listening, adapting, and refusing complacency in a system under siege.