NHS England region
Maternity services in South West
12 NHS trusts in South West with their hospital maternity units: CQC’s rating, what women said about the staff who cared for them in labour, and how many gave birth in July 2026. England’s CQC score was 8.4 out of 10.
The CQC score comes from women who gave birth in February 2025: kindness, respect, being listened to, help when you needed it, staff working well together and not being left alone when worried.
NHS trusts in South West
Highest CQC score first for “Staff caring for you in labour”, from the Maternity Survey. Neighbouring trusts are often only a fraction of a point apart, well within the survey’s margin: CQC’s own comparison, beside each one, is what tells trusts apart. 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.
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 9.0/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 111 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: better than expected.
- Women who gave birth
- 175
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Dorset County Hospital).
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.9/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 163 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: better than expected.
- Women who gave birth
- 475
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Cheltenham General Hospital); Requires improvement (Gloucestershire Royal Hospital); Good (Stroud Maternity Hospital).
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.8/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 156 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: better than expected.
- Women who gave birth
- 305
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Chippenham Community Hospital); Good (Frome Birth Centre (Frome Community Hospital)); Outstanding (Royal United Hospital Bath).
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.9/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 122 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: somewhat better than expected.
- Women who gave birth
- 140
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Torbay Hospital).
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.7/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 130 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 145
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Salisbury District Hospital).
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.7/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 154 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 260
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Bridgwater Community Hospital); Requires improvement (Musgrove Park Hospital); Inadequate (Yeovil District Hospital).
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.5/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 141 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 285
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (Helston Birth Centre); Good (Royal Cornwall Hospital); Requires improvement (St Austell Hospital - Penrice Birthing Unit).
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.5/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 118 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 140
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Derriford Hospital).
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.4/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 153 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 390
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (North Devon District Hospital); Requires improvement (Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford)).
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.4/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 106 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 280
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Inadequate (Poole Hospital); Requires improvement (The Royal Bournemouth Hospital).
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Staff caring for you in labour
- 8.2/10
- CQC Maternity Survey 2025, 124 women answered
- England: 8.4. CQC: about the same as most trusts.
- Women who gave birth
- 285
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Requires improvement (Great Western Hospital).
Trusts formed by a merger since the survey
CQC surveyed these as separate trusts, so they have no single CQC score to place in the order above. The trust page shows each part’s results. In alphabetical order.
Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
- Women who gave birth
- 775
- in July 2026
CQC maternity rating: Good (UHBW Bristol Campus); Good (Weston General Hospital).
Where the figures come from
CQC’s inspections and survey, and the births each trust reported to NHS England.
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.
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