Media release: Inspection report Western Isles Hospital, NHS Western Isles
Healthcare Improvement Scotland today (Thursday 22 January) published a report relating to a Maternity Services Safe Delivery of Care inspection visit to Western Isles Hospital, NHS Western Isles. We carried out the unannounced inspection of maternity services at the hospital on 13-14 October 2025.
Speaking of the report, Donna Maclean, Chief Inspector, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said:
“During our inspection we saw staff providing compassionate and responsive care to women and their families. Senior midwifery managers and senior obstetricians were working with the wider teams to provide care to women and their families across a remote and rural service.
“We saw good teamwork and staff described being supported by senior managers and felt able to raise concerns. Women and families we spoke with were complimentary of the care they received.”
Chief Inspector, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Areas for improvement included a need for improved oversight of activity within the maternity unit during site huddles, to support the safe delivery of care when senior midwives are unavailable.
Other areas for improvement identified included improved oversight and governance of policies, guidelines and procedures. Some aspects of mandatory training required improvement as did some fire safety requirements and the completion of patient documentation.
Speaking of our expansion of Safe Delivery of Care inspections into maternity services, Eddie Docherty, Director of Quality Assurance and Regulation, said:
“In response to Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Neonatal Mortality Review in 2024, we made a commitment to expanding our Safe Delivery of Care inspection approach to include inpatient maternity services. The maternity inspections will provide women, and families with an assessment of the quality of care provided by their local maternity service and an independent review of any required improvements.
“Our organisation is also producing a set of standards for maternity services, which will in time support our inspection process for maternity services.”
Director of Quality Assurance and Regulation
The maternity services inspection at Western Isles Hospital resulted in nine areas of good practice, one recommendation and 11 requirements.
An improvement action plan has been developed by NHS Western Isles to meet the requirements for maternity services.
The full Western Isles maternity inspection report is available to view at: https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/publications/western-isles-hospital-maternity-safe-delivery-of-care-inspection-october-2025/
Ends
Notes to editor
This report is part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s programme of inspections and reviews.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland is the national improvement agency for health and care in Scotland. We provide independent assurance of the quality and safety of the care provided by Scotland’s health and care system and measure how outcomes for people are improving and inequalities reducing. With partner organisations, we will consider how services are working together as an integrated system to implement improvements.