Safety at hospital maternity unit must be improved, report says

Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire's King's Mill Hospital

Although a report on maternity services at a hospital in Nottinghamshire found them to be good, it also stated that safety must be increased.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the hospital's services in November at King's Mill in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Overall, the maternity services were rated as good, but the safety rating was changed from "good" to "requires improvement".

The trust that manages the hospital claimed that improvements had started to be made.

The report stated that the service had enough staff to provide for the needs of women and keep them safe, but it also stated that not all staff had successfully completed the required maternity and safeguarding training.

It claimed that risk assessments were used inconsistently during triage and that the systems and procedures in place could cause delays in the evaluation of women and the escalation of their needs.

The service staff was expanded, though, and they completed risk assessments for every woman as well as swiftly took action to eliminate or reduce risk.

The hospital's leaders were said to have understood and handled the problems and priorities the service faced.

Two instances of excellent practice were noted in the report.

According to the report, the trust supported new mothers and educated them on the difficulties of feeding a baby.

The trust was also said to have listened to employees returning from maternity leave regarding the difficulties they encountered when attempting to express milk for their infant.

As a result, the hospital's main entrance now has a feeding pod that is open to staff, guests, and patients.

The inspection was conducted as part of a national review of the CQC's maternity services inspection program.

The leadership team we found had the knowledge and skills to effectively manage the service, according to Greg Rielly, the CQC's deputy director of operations in the Midlands. .

"The service had a good culture, and the employees felt appreciated, supported, and respected.

"Leaders were visible and approachable for them to do so, and we were pleased to find that both women and staff felt they could raise concerns without fear. .

"However, we did uncover safety-related issues that leaders need to address.

"We discovered the triage system to be ineffective, with a multi-option phone line allowing calls to accidentally be routed to the labor ward. .

"Although staff members claimed to know how to prioritize calls involving clinical concerns, this wasn't always well documented, making it difficult for leaders to be certain that the right kind of triaging had been done. ".

The points raised by the report are already being addressed, according to Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

"We welcome feedback from the CQC because we're keen to ensure that our maternity services continue to offer a high standard of care to patients and their families," said Phil Bolton, chief nurse.

"The 'good' rating correctly acknowledges the excellent work our maternity colleagues perform on a daily basis in spite of the persistent challenges faced by maternity services.

"Continuous improvement is one of our top priorities, and efforts to address the issues brought up as well as others we have identified are well under way.

. "

Source link

You've successfully subscribed to Webosor
Great! Next, complete checkout to get full access to all premium content.
Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.
Unable to sign you in. Please try again.
Success! Your account is fully activated, you now have access to all content.
Error! Stripe checkout failed.
Success! Your billing info is updated.
Billing info update failed.