Gloucestershire hospitals issued warning over maternity services

A hospital trust has been told to make improvements to its maternity services.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had met requirements from a previous inspection.

However, it re-issued a warning notice in relation to safeguarding training and processes in maternity services.

Lisa Stephens, interim director of midwifery, said: "On occasions we've had to prioritise patient care over these."

She added: "The challenges across midwifery nationally are well documented and there is no doubt that these are difficult times across the profession.

"Currently, our outcomes across surgery and maternity remain in line with other centres nationally - and are better in some areas."

In a report published earlier, the CQC said improvements were found in the trust's surgical services during a focused inspection in April, which followed two warning notices issued in 2022 for surgical and maternity services.

The regulator issued the trust with a further warning to make sure suitable safeguarding training was provided for all staff "and incidents were investigated in a timely way so learning can be shared quickly to reduce the risk of them happening again".

The same warning was issued in April 2022.

Neither surgery nor maternity was re-rated following the inspection. The trust's surgical services remain as 'requires improvement' and maternity remains rated as 'inadequate'.

The trust's overall rating is currently 'requires improvement'.

Cath Campbell, CQC's deputy director of operations in the south, said the inspection found "a number of positive changes", adding: "We were pleased to find the culture had improved and it was more open and transparent."

She added: "These positive changes had impacted on the quality of care. Also, staff were receiving the support they needed to manage their wellbeing."

Ms Campbell said improvements were still needed to be made regarding "poor compliance" with levels of safeguarding and incidents "still not being investigated in a timely way".

At the end of March there were 215 incidents waiting to be investigated.

Deborah Lee, chief executive of the trust, said: "Overall this is a positive outcome, which indicates some of the progress we have made over the last year or so.

"It also demonstrates the journey we are on and the trajectory that the team have put us on. That's particularly important given the context of health and care provision over the last few years."

The Trust says it expects the CQC to re-inspect services in the near future and will be working with its colleagues and partners to obtain an improved overall rating.

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