Inspectors have praised Oswestry’s maternity unit following a visit.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) made an unannounced visit to the midwife-led unit (MLU) at the end of last year and rated the service as ‘good’ across all areas.

The MLU at Oswestry, along with those at Bridgnorth and Ludlow, is currently closed because of staffing issues.

Prof Richards noted there were no serious incidents and “effective” communication was established between the MLU and the consultant-led unit at the Princesss Royal Hospital in Telford.

Jo Banks, women and children’s care group director at SaTH, said they were “delighted” by the rating.

“We know women value this service and we recently held a very productive meeting with Oswestry Health Group in which we reaffirmed our support for our MLUs and emphasised the suspension of services at Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry is temporary,” she said.

“Overall, the CQC recognised maternity services at the Trust are going through a period of transformation and improvement and that the relatively new senior leadership team has begun to make positive changes across the service.”

The consultant-led unit at the PRH was rated ‘requires improvement’, while concerns of medicine management were raised at the Wrekin MLU in Telford.

Meanwhile, registration has opened for those who want to take part in a review of midwife-led units across Shropshire.

A workshop will be held at The Whole Life Centre in Cabin Lane, Oswestry, on Thursday, September 14, between 10am and 12.30pm providing an opportunity for the community to discuss the positive and negative aspects of the service.

Meredith Vivian, lay member for Patient and Public Involvement at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “We want to hear people’s views and ideas about the MLU service and, in particular, what they think works well and what could be improved.

“This feedback is very important to us.”

To register and for more information about the review visit www.shropshireccg.nhs.uk/find-out-about-our-midwife-led-unit-review