Gloucestershire maternity service failures 'putting women and babies at risk'

A shortage of maternity staff is putting women and babies at risk in Gloucestershire, inspectors have said.

The county's maternity services have been downgraded by two levels, from good to inadequate, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Its report highlighted staff shortages, missed training, exhaustion among workers and concerns over equipment.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust issued an apology and said improvements have been made.

CQC inspectors visited maternity wards, birth units and community midwives in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud in April after receiving concerns about the "culture, safety and quality of services".

They found the service did not have enough midwifery staff with the "right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm or to provide the right treatment all the time".

Between October 2021 and April 2022 there were 174 instances of unsafe staffing levels on Gloucester delivery suite and birth centre.

The report said women did not always receive one-to-one care in labour, and maternity staff were not always able to carry out mandatory training due to staffing pressures.

Other failures included a lack of life-saving equipment for haemorrhaging and pre-eclampsia, and some staff not knowing how to clean birthing pools.

The service's leadership was criticised for instability and creating a culture which doesn't support incident reporting.

Staff reported feeling exhausted and under-valued, and 13 people contacted the CQC after the inspection to report further concerns.

Midwives were praised for high levels of safeguarding, wards were found to be clean and leaders were found to understand the issues the service is facing.

Catherine Campbell, the CQC's head of hospital inspection, said it was "very aware" of the pressure that the NHS is under and it's inspectors had seen the impact of staff shortages.

"We have issued a warning notice to ensure that immediate improvements are made, especially regarding the safety, leadership and governance of the department. There is also work to be done to improve the culture," she said.

"We're monitoring the trust closely and will return to check that the required improvements have been made," added Ms Campbell.

The Trust says it accepted the report and has apologised for not meeting the "required standards".

Professor Mark Pietroni, Medical Director and Interim Chief Executive, said changes had already been made and the remaining issues were being addressed.

"We want to reassure patients that our hospitals remain a safe place to receive care," he said.

"Staffing numbers remains a huge challenge nationally and our service is no different.

"Recruitment has successfully reduced the number of vacancies, but we remain 10 full-time posts short of establishment in addition to sick leave and maternity leave," added Prof Pietroni.

He said the inspection had come when the service was recovering from the pandemic, and praised the dedication of maternity staff.

The Trust has three months to make improvements.

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