An unannounced inspection by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) has praised maternity services at Victoria Hospital, NHS Fife, for delivering compassionate, person-centred care. The inspection, carried out in December 2025, highlighted strong multidisciplinary teamwork, visible senior leadership, and highly positive feedback from women and families using the service.
The inspection identified ten areas of good practice, including:
- Compassionate, responsive, and person-centred care observed across all inspected areas.
- Introduction of a dedicated 'red phone' system to enhance emergency communication with the Scottish Ambulance Service.
- A strong family-centred approach that encourages the involvement of fathers, partners, and family members in care.
- Positive learning environments and excellent support for student midwives.
- Open and respectful multidisciplinary communication and leadership visibility.
- Implementation of a newborn observation alert system to enhance safety.
- High levels of patient satisfaction with infant feeding support.
While the inspection found many strengths, HIS issued two recommendations and 13 requirements to further enhance the quality and safety of care. These include:
- Strengthening governance and oversight in maternity triage, including the implementation of a 24/7 dedicated triage system.
- Improving compliance with mandatory training, including bereavement and trauma-informed care, fire safety, and neonatal resuscitation.
- Ensuring timely completion of incident reviews and significant adverse event reviews, with appropriate feedback and action planning.
- Enhancing systems for real-time staffing risk assessment and consistent application of workforce planning tools.
- Ensuring staff have protected time for leadership responsibilities and access to support following adverse events.
NHS Fife Director of Nursing, Gillian McAuley said: "We welcome the findings of the Healthcare Improvement Scotland inspection and are proud of the dedication and compassion shown by our maternity teams.
“A comprehensive action plan has been developed to support sustained quality improvement within maternity services at Victoria Hospital. Work to address the identified improvement areas is already underway, reflecting our continued commitment to delivering the highest standards of care for women, babies and families across Fife.”
This inspection report and comprehensive action plan are available on the Healthcare Improvement Scotland website:- https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/publications/victoria-hospital-maternity-safe-delivery-of-care-inspection-march-2026/
