Sheffield Maternity Services Downgraded From “Outstanding” To “Inadequate”

It has been confirmed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it has downgraded Sheffield’s Jessop Wing maternity unit from “outstanding” to “inadequate” following an investigation that was carried out in March.

The inspection was undertaken after concerns had been raised regarding patient safety and assessed Jessop Wing Hospital’s labour ward, two postnatal wards, antenatal ward, admission triage area and the advanced obstetric care unit. The CQC also spoke with staff members and observed them providing care and treatment to patients.

CQC report findings into Jessop Wing maternity unit

The report found that the maternity services did not provide “the standard of care women should be able to expect” and warned that pregnant women and their babies could be at risk unless improvements are made. The inspection reported:

• The maternity unit did not have effective systems in place which ensured that:
  • Staff members had the required skills, competence, knowledge and experience to safely care for their patients and their babies; and
  • Did not have effective systems in place for “managing and responding to patient risk” to ensure that all pregnant women and their children were cared for in line with national medical guidance.
• Risk assessments for patients were not always completed or updated by staff, nor was timely action taken to minimise any risks to patient safety.
• Issues were highlighted in respect of how patient safety incidents were managed, specifically, there were delays in the way in which incidents were investigated and lessons that could be learned from incidents were not always shared with staff members.
• Patient records were stored on numerous IT systems and as staff members had to access all of these systems to obtain a full overview of patients’ medical notes this posed a risk to the patients’ overall safety.

The CQC’s Head of Hospital Inspection, Sarah Dronsfield, commented on the report:

However, the CQC also said inspectors had found several areas of good medical practice across the maternity services provided by Jessop Wing Hospital, which included staff members being “caring and focused” on the needs of their patients.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust action plan

Following the inspection, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has put in place an action plan “detailing what they are doing to reduce these risks“. Some of the “urgent conditions” which the Trust must address and correct are as follows:

• Make sure that all staff members are suitably qualified and skilled to provide care for and meet the medical needs of the patients and their babies.
• Ensure that the correct processes are implemented for investigating serious incidents, and for issues that do occur, make sure lessons are learned from them.
• Make improvements in respect of monitoring the effectiveness of medical care and treatment being provided to patients.
• Implement improvements to how the maternity service prevents and controls infection.

The Trust has said that it has “wasted no time” in addressing these conditions and has reassured patients due to visit Jessop Wing Hospital that they will “continue to receive safe, good care“.

Kirsten Major, Chief Executive of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, commented: