Calls have been made for an inquiry into failing maternity services at Durham and Darlington hospitals which have put mothers and babies at “risk”.

Maternity wards at Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital North Durham were downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ after a recent inspection.

A damning report details how understaffing and culture issues have undermined the efforts of courageous staff.

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The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said “staff did not consistently assess risks to women and birthing people, nor act on them”, after its inspection on March 28 and 29 this year.

Lola McEvoy, Labour candidate to be Darlington’s next MP, has called for an inquiry into ‘inadequate’ services and slammed Health Secretary Stephen Barclay for what she calls a “catastrophic mismanagement” of the NHS.

The Northern Echo: Lola McEvoy is leading calls for an inquiry/]Lola McEvoy is leading calls for an inquiry/] (Image: PR)

McEvoy said: “Women are at their most vulnerable when giving birth and this CQC report shows that babies have been born with their mothers facing unnecessary and preventable stress. This is unacceptable.

“Women put their health and the health of their babies in the hands of our NHS, and finding that staff were not adequately trained to provide a safe service is disturbing.

“Families deserve the very best of care and the safety of services must be paramount.

“It is a terrible indictment of the way this government has failed to properly support our NHS that our hospitals find themselves in this position and whilst it’s positive that hospital management have already made some improvements it should never have come to this.

“These women have been let down and swift action is needed to reassure the public and those about to give birth that our hospitals are fully staffed with trained professionals who can ensure their babies a safe delivery. All the remaining actions required by the CQC must be addressed rapidly.

“An inquiry is now needed to find out how the situation was allowed to get to a point where mothers were having their babies in an inadequate service.”

The report praised staff who showed courage, compassion and demonstrated real caring for the women, people and babies under their care.

Outlining the findings of the report Carolyn Jenkinson from the CQC, said: “It was concerning to see such a deterioration in the level of care being provided to women, people using the service and their babies.

“Across both maternity services, leaders urgently need to mitigate the negative impact of understaffing.

“We saw that staff had reportedly delayed inductions of labour, including babies categorised as high risk, due to understaffing.

“Midwives had told managers they found the unit was unsafe, but no improvement had been made and staff continued to work late, miss breaks, and take sick leave due to stress which it totally unacceptable.

“It was positive, however, that staff were kind and worked well together, often under pressure, to benefit those in their care.”

The CQC inspection also revealed that managers did not always "review incidents in a timely way".

Their criticism of the management went further, stating that local leaders did not always have the skills and abilities to run the service.

When describing the culture at the hospital staff reported to inspectors that they felt "frozen out" when bringing worries to the leadership team.

At the time of the inspection, despite active recruitment, staff felt that “no tangible improvements were made despite issues repeatedly being raised to the leadership team”.

Bosses at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust sought to reassure expectant mothers they had been improving on the findings since inspectors left at the end of March.

Noel Scanlon, Director of Nursing said: “They should feel safe and confident that the service they receive will be of the highest standard.

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“The inspection took place six months ago and identified some weaknesses which we have addressed.

“If they do have concerns, they should speak to their community midwife.

“My daughter is pregnant if she wanted to have her baby in County Durham or Darlington I would have no concerns about that whatsoever.

“I would say to anyone who is worried reading this report, don’t be.”