The Royal United Hospital in Bath has been praised for the standards of its antenatal and newborn screening service.

Despite the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic the RUH service met all of Public Health England’s service standards, ensuring all appointments took place within the set timeframes.

The team provides a range of services, including screening for infectious diseases and fetal anomalies antenatally, tracking of the newborn physical examination and hearing screen for newborns.

Sharon Wilson, deputy screening coordinator, said “Every three to five years the quality assurance team carries out an inspection of all the screening services provided by the trust to assess what we are doing well and areas requiring improvement.

“Following the latest inspection, QA reported it was really impressed with the services we provide and made no recommendations at all on where we could improve – though here at the RUH we are always looking at ways we can further improve the service we provide to our patients.”

Inspectors from the Screening Quality Assurance Service said: “The team identified that your service is very well engaged with quality assurance and with changes and developments to the screening programmes. It was evident that staff are dedicated to ensuring a high level of service for pregnant women and babies.

“As a team we would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your team for your continued commitment to screening and to thank you for participating in this process at this challenging time.”

In their report, inspectors highlighted the increased level of digital information available for parents.