NHS trust · South East
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Maternity care at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust: what CQC found when it inspected its 3 hospitals, what women said about their care, and how babies were born there in July 2026.
CQC’s maternity rating
CQC, the regulator, inspects each hospital’s maternity service and judges it overall and on five questions. The date is the day CQC’s rating was published; a dash means CQC did not judge that question.
| Hospital | Overall | Safe | Effective | Caring | Responsive | Well-led |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crowborough Birthing CentreCrowborough, rated 16 February 2024 | Requires improvement | Requires improvement | – | – | – | Requires improvement |
| Maidstone HospitalMaidstone, rated 16 February 2024 | Requires improvement | Requires improvement | – | – | – | Requires improvement |
| The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at PemburyTunbridge Wells, rated 31 July 2025 | Good | Requires improvement | Good | Good | Good | Good |
What women said about their care
CQC Maternity Survey 2025: 158 women who gave birth in February 2025 answered (42% of those asked). Each CQC score is out of 10, in the order of the questionnaire.
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.6/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 158 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
| Part of your care | CQC’s score | England | CQC’s comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| The start of your carea choice of where to have the baby, and enough information to decide | 9.0 out of 10 | 7.8 | Better than expected |
| Antenatal check-upswhether midwives knew your history, listened, gave you time and asked about your mental health | 9.0 out of 10 | 8.5 | Better than expected |
| During your pregnancyhelp when you called, being involved in decisions, respect, trust in staff and warning signs to look out for | 9.1 out of 10 | 8.7 | Somewhat better than expected |
| Your labour and birthadvice before an induction and in early labour, help with pain, being sent home when worried, your partner being involved | 8.6 out of 10 | 8.5 | About the same as most trusts |
| Staff caring for you in labourkindness, respect, being listened to, help when you needed it, staff working well together and not being left alone when worried | 8.6 out of 10 | 8.4 | About the same as most trusts |
| Care on the ward after the birthhelp when you needed it, information, kindness, your partner staying, pain relief and a delayed discharge | 8.5 out of 10 | 7.5 | Better than expected |
| Feeding your babywhether your choices were respected and you had enough support | 8.5 out of 10 | 8.2 | About the same as most trusts |
| Care at home after the birthvisits and calls from midwives, your mental health and physical recovery, and help with feeding | 8.1 out of 10 | 7.8 | About the same as most trusts |
| Triagethe advice line, being listened to when you went in to be checked, and the wait to be seen | 8.1 out of 10 | 7.8 | About the same as most trusts |
| Thinking about a complaintwhether you thought about complaining; a higher CQC score means fewer did | 6.5 out of 10 | 6.5 | About the same as most trusts |
CQC scores each answer from 0 to 10 and averages them for the trust, adjusted for the mothers’ age and whether it was their first baby. CQC’s comparison says whether a trust’s CQC score lies outside the range a trust of its size would reach by chance, if its care were like most trusts’.
Births in July 2026
How many women gave birth at the trust, and how, beside England. Counts are rounded to the nearest 5.
- Women who gave birth
- 440
- in the month, rounded to the nearest 5
- Birth without help
- 41%
- 180 of 440 births, with no forceps, ventouse or caesarean
- England: 42%.
- Forceps or ventouse
- 9%
- 40 of 440 births
- England: 10%.
- Caesarean
- 50%
- 220 of 440 births (100 planned, 120 emergency)
- England: 47%.
- Labour induced
- 26%
- 115 of 440 women who gave birth
- England: 27%.
- Born in a midwife-led unit
- 5%
- 20 of 440 babies whose place of birth was recorded
- England: 11%.
- Born at home
- 1%
- 5 of 440 babies whose place of birth was recorded
- England: 1%.
How babies are born depends on the women a unit cares for: their age, their health, whether it is a first baby, and whether the unit takes the most complex pregnancies. A higher or lower caesarean share is not better or worse in itself, so these figures are never in any order.
Choosing where to give birth
You can choose where to have your baby: at home, in a midwife-led unit or on a hospital labour ward, and at a hospital other than your nearest. Ask your midwife. Where to give birth: the options (nhs.uk).
We do not grade maternity care: we show CQC’s ratings, CQC’s survey scores and NHS England’s figures for births. Trusts care for different women: a specialist unit takes the most complex pregnancies from a wide area, so a figure on its own says little about the care.
Sources: CQC maternity ratings as at 1 October 2026; CQC Maternity Survey 2025 (women who gave birth in February 2025, published 10 December 2025); NHS England, Maternity Services Monthly Statistics, July 2026 (published 22 October 2026). Open Government Licence. CQC is not responsible for how we present its data.
More about the trust
The trust’s waiting times, from NHS England.
Data updated
The month each source’s data runs to, and when its publisher released it.
- CQC Maternity Survey: (published 10 December 2025)
- Maternity Services Monthly Statistics: (published 22 October 2026)
- CQC ratings: (published 2 October 2026)
Sources
- Contains information from the Care Quality Commission, licensed under the Open Government Licence. CQC must be acknowledged as the source of the data; CQC is not responsible for our analysis.
- Contains information from NHS England, licenced under the current version of the Open Government Licence