Chief Nursing Officer, Dr Marion Andrews-Evans said:
“We acknowledge the findings of The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report on Maternity Services at the Trust and their recommendations.
Women, birthing people and their families should quite rightly expect high quality, compassionate and safe care that meets their needs and we know that the Trust is focused on achieving this for every individual.
In their report, the inspection team acknowledged the unprecedented impacts caused by the pandemic as well as the national shortage of staff. It was good to see that the CQC have praised staff for their commitment and dedication to women and birthing people’s care in these circumstances.
In safeguarding, the report highlights that staff understand how to protect women and to identify people at risk.
The CQC also identified important areas for improvement which the Trust is addressing as key priorities, including leadership capacity, staffing levels, staff engagement within the service and improvements in the reporting of risks, incidents and associated learning.
We are aware that a number of improvements have already been made since the inspection in areas covered by the report’s recommendations, such as in quality improvement, the role of dedicated midwives to support recruitment and retention of staff and specialist clinical support for staff health and wellbeing.
Our local Maternity and Neonatal System will work together with the Trust to continue to make improvements and ensure there is always safe, high quality personalised care for all women and birthing people.”