NHS maternity unit lacked the staff ‘to keep babies safe’

AN NHS hospital did not consistently have enough midwives to “keep women and babies safe”, a watchdog has found.

An unannounced inspection was carried out at the Countess of Chester Hospital in February and March by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), England’s regulator of health and social care.

In its report, published today, it found the NHS trust requires improvement and served the trust with two warning notices requiring it to make urgent improvements.

The inspection looked at medical care, surgery, maternity, urgent and emergency services and how well-led the trust was. It found the effectiveness of the trust’s leadership and the safety of its maternity service had worsened, with the maternity wing dropping from “good” to “requires improvement” since its previous inspection in 2016.

In midwifery, the CQC’S report found “the service did not have enough maternity staff with the right qualifications,

‘The antenatal and postnatal ward did not have a ward manager at the time of our inspection’

skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment”.

Lack of staff was identified as the most reported incident in the maternity department last year, meaning “the service did not consistently have enough midwifery staff to keep women and babies safe”, inspectors found.

The report identified that “women did not receive one-to-one care when in established labour” and “the antenatal and postnatal ward [Cestrian ward] did not have a ward manager at the time of our inspection”. Maternity services should have the capacity to provide women in established labour with supportive one-to-one care, according to guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Karen Knapton, CQC’S head of hospital inspection, said the trust’s maternity ward was rated inadequate “due to issues including a lack of staff and suitable equipment to keep women and babies safe”.

Dr Susan Gilby, chief executive at the trust, said: “In our maternity department, we have implemented and are continuing to develop measures to ensure we can consistently provide patients with the safe and effective care they have a right to expect.”

She added that staff were “working hard across the Trust to implement the CQC’S recommendations”.