Portsmouth maternity unit where women 'were not always protected' is downgraded after staff shortages left some waiting six hours

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026 · last updated 26 September 2026.

Queen Alexandra Hospital's maternity unit in Portsmouth has been downgraded from "good" to "requires improvement" by the Care Quality Commission after inspectors found "persistent poor staffing and daily, severe operational pressures" across three sites. The CQC visited in March and found five regulatory breaches, with the report warning care had "chronically" failed to meet national standards. Birth centres at St Mary's Community Health Campus and Gosport War Memorial Hospital were also downgraded.

Only 29% of doctors across the trust were up to date with safeguarding training — a repeat breach from the previous inspection.

The QA unit hit "extreme pressure" four times in the year, diverting admissions to other hospitals during the inspection itself.

Junior midwives told inspectors they did not feel able to raise concerns about certain senior labour ward staff, whose poor behaviour had gone unaddressed.