Media release: Maternity Inspection Report, Victoria Hospital, NHS Fife
Healthcare Improvement Scotland today (Thursday 19 March) published a report relating to a Maternity Services Safe Delivery of Care inspection visit to Victoria Hospital, NHS Fife. We carried out the unannounced inspection of maternity services at the hospital on 2-3 December 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. Women and families whom we spoke with were complimentary of the care they received and would recommend NHS Fife maternity services to family and friends.
“Senior obstetricians and senior midwifery staff were visible, and clinically active working with the multidisciplinary team to provide person-centred care to women and their families.
“Staff, newly qualified practitioners and students described respectful working relationships with senior managers and the wider team and felt well supported and able to raise concerns, with respectful and supportive interactions between the teams observed.”
Chief Inspector, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Areas for improvement included development within the maternity triage department to support the continued improvement of patient safety and communication, as well as a dedicated midwife for telephone triage.
Other areas for improvement identified included ensuring staff have time for mandatory training and protected time for clinical leaders to fulfil their leadership roles and to ensure timescales of incident reviews and significant adverse event reviews are achieved. Assurance of fire safety requirements was also required.
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, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
The maternity services inspection at Victoria Hospital resulted in ten areas of good practice, two recommendations and 13 requirements.
An improvement action plan has been developed by NHS Fife to meet the requirements for maternity services.
The Victoria Hospital maternity inspection report is available to view at: https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/publications/victoria-hospital-maternity-safe-delivery-of-care-inspection-march-2026/
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Notes to editor
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.