Hospital inspection finds improvements in maternity services, but also areas of poor practice
A report out today says that maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has improved, but there was still areas of poor practice that the trust must address.
Both local hospitals have an overall rating of Inadequate and the hospital trust has been in special measures for over a year.
The Care Quality Commission says they carried out an unannounced focused inspection of maternity services in April this year, in response to concerning information they had received in relation to care of women in this department.
The latest report released today found that improvements had been made in managing women with higher risks in pregnancy when inspectors visited in April.
Findings Summary
The report found that staff were committed to providing a good quality service, patient records were accurate, equipment was in good working order and tracked. Incident reporting had increased to demonstrate openness to improve from lessons learnt.
Areas of concern included, Midwife staffing within the department was not adequate with a high sickness rate, the birthing room was too small and the birthing pool was not suitable for use. Tools used to monitor deterioration were not in line with up to date national guidance.
The full report can be accessed via the Care Quality Commission website.
Trust pleased that improvements found
Paula Clark, the new Chief Executive of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We are pleased the CQC has found improvements in our maternity services and patients and families say staff are kind and compassionate.
“Since inspections in April we have appointed 29 new midwives, a new director of midwifery, a new care group director and two new consultants and we will continue to build on these improvements, but we appreciate there is more work still to do.
“In our emergency departments, we acted immediately on CQC findings by improving our processes, increasing specialist training for staff and we have already appointed a sepsis nurse.
“But we recognise there is more to do and we are building a programme of improvement to address the areas of concern and ensure our patients receive the best possible care.”
The report states that they did not inspect any other core service or wards at the hospital apart from maternity.
