Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) is currently the subject of a large-scale investigation over maternity failings at its hospitals.
Last week, the lead of that investigation, midwife Donna Ockenden, said that the Trust needed to “get back on track” with its improvements after progress had clearly “stalled”.
This week, the BBC has reported that the Anthony May, Chief Executive at NUH has apologised to staff, admitting that the Trust’s internal arrangements for staff to raise concerns were “not working”.
Insufficient staffing levels
This comes following limited details of a recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection that was shared in NUH board papers and confirmed that the mix of skills among workers had been insufficient during their visit.
The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection at Queens Medical Centre and City Hospital last month following “concerning information” being passed to them by staff.
Workers told the CQC that the level of staffing across NUH’s maternity department is “insufficient”.
Feedback shared with NUH by CQC says that staff at both QMC and City Hospital reported insufficient staffing levels, as well as an insufficient mix of skills among workers.
Mr May said of colleagues reporting their concerns to the CQC:
“I’m so sorry they had to do that, and I’d like to apologise to them because we should be picking those things up in the unit, on the ground. We’ve got arrangements in place for people to speak up, but clearly people clearly don’t have the confidence in them and that’s the thing we’re concerned about.”
More progress needed
Whilst the full CQC report has not yet been published, Ms Ockenden has responded to the details already available and said parents who had recently received maternity care under NUH had raised concerns similar to those she had heard some 18 months ago regarding the state of wards and a “lack of compassion”.
Mr May said that he believed things had changed but accepted that there was progress yet to be made.
He had met with Ms Ockenden earlier in the week and “collectively reached a view that there was more to do”.
Mr May said that he expected the Trust to be fully staffed by September and said that progress was being made with retaining staff.
The Trust had recently appointed more than 40 midwives who were due to start in the coming months, and said that in the last 12 months, there had been a 33% reduction in the use of bank or agency staff in midwifery.
Mr May said that the Trust had budgeted to staff maternity above the national guidelines and that they were recruiting now.
He said the Trust had “a good grip on what’s going on but needed to find a better way of engaging with staff. I’m sure we can change, I am absolutely sure we can.”
Comment
Still, under intense scrutiny, it is disappointing to see that there appears to have been a stall in progress to improve maternity services at Nottingham Hospitals.
It is also concerning that staff were unable to share their concerns within the hospital and instead needed to report these to the CQC.
Whilst there was evidence of improvements found, it is unacceptable that energy seems to have dropped to keep that momentum going and to resolve the issues ingrained in the service as it stands.
Much more needs to be done, and it cannot be the case that families are still being let down.
It is very much hoped that the further scrutiny following this development will put added importance on reinvigorating the plan to make change and push improvements forward.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which is ranked in Tier One by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500, and Commended in The Times Best Law Firms 2024.
If you have any questions about the subjects discussed in this article, please contact Danielle or another team member in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.
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