Eighteen midwives recruited from South Africa are among new staff in maternity services at Nottingham hospitals as part of a plan to increase resources and improve care for mothers and babies. The midwives will start work in May after the trust which runs both main city hospitals sent a team to the country in an attempt to solve problems recruiting new staff in the department.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust’s (NUH) maternity services are rated ‘inadequate’ by the healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC has also highlighted issues with how ‘well led’ the trust is.
The issue was discussed at a Nottinghamshire County Council health scrutiny committee on February 21, where leaders provided an update on their improvement plan for maternity services at Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen’s Medical Centre. Chief executive Anthony May joined NUH in September 2022 and sent out letters to families alongside Donna Ockenden apologising for failings in care.
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Ms Ockenden is currently undertaking a large-scale review of failings at the trust’s maternity units. Mr May told the committee that there is a “strong and senior commitment in the trust to resolve inadequacies”. He added that the trust meets with Ms Ockenden every quarter.
Labour councillor Michelle Welsh said her experience within NUH’s maternity services is being looked at as part of the Ockenden review. She said: “What has happened has utterly devastated lives.
“It changed me, I am a shadow of the person I used to be because of what happened to me and the fact that I work with these families and see it every day. You supporting the Ockenden review and Anthony, your meeting with families makes a huge difference.”
Cllr Welsh also referenced baby Wynter Andrews, who died in 2019 aged 23 minutes old. Last month NUH was fined for failing to provide safe care to Wynter and her mum Sarah Andrews.
Cllr Welsh added: “You’ve been issued with a record fine of £800,000. The Andrews family had to stand up in a court of law and talk about an utterly horrendous situation.
“This isn’t something that happened overnight. This crisis started years ago.
“Your own midwives sent a letter to the board, some of them are still in place now – and that letter was fundamentally ignored. You apologised to families and they appreciate that. But we don’t want sorry, we want action.
“At what point does NUH stand back and say we need some accountability here? This has gone on for years and mothers have died and babies have died. Women have left NUH totally traumatised. It changes you for life.”
Mr May replied: “In the Wynter Andrews case, the judge was clear that the penalty was against the trust. In many ways, the trust failed the staff as well as the Andrews family and baby Wynter. The CQC found that staff didn’t understand or comply with guidance at all times. We have done a lot to improve that.
“As well as staff needing to be held to account for individual failings, it is equally important that the trust provides staff with support and guidance so they are operating correctly. I do believe we’ve made improvements in the way we support our colleagues.”
He added that there is a “strong sense of accountability amongst board members”. Director of midwifery Sharon Wallis explained the improvements which have been made within the service, including the implementation of a maternity advice line and the use of BadgerNet, an electronic maternity system.
She added that a team have been to South Africa and has recruited 18 midwives who will join the trust from May. Trust papers also state that as of February 6, a backlog of open serious incidents is 29, down from 61.
NUH previously missed its own deadline to complete serious incident investigations by December. Ms Wallis said the aim is to eliminate all outstanding investigations which occurred before September 2022, by the end of March 2023.
Ms Wallis said: “We are confident we will get those 29 done by the end of March so we can get reports to families. From June 2022 we have had 23 serious incidents declared.”
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