Following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) earlier this year, three maternity services run by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as requiring improvement.
The CQC carried out the inspection as part of their national maternity inspection programme, which aims to provide an up-to-date view of the quality of hospital maternity care across the UK.
Following the inspection, it was confirmed by the CQC that at St Mary’s Hospital, Wythenshawe Hospital, and North Manchester General Hospital the overall rating for maternity services was ‘requires improvement’.
In particular, at St Mary’s Hospital, the inspection highlighted:
- The service did not always control infection risk well.
- Staff did not always assess, monitor or manage risks to women, birthing people and babies.
- Staff did not always have access to enough suitable equipment to provide safe care and treatment to women, birthing people and babies.
- Managers were not always assured staff were competent.
- Risks and action plans were not always followed-up or addressed in a timely way.
At Wythenshawe Hospital, the CQC inspection highlighted:
- Risks and action plans were not always followed up or addressed in a timely way.
- Staff did not always have access to enough suitable equipment to keep women and babies safe.
- Managers were not always assured staff were competent.
- The service did not always control infection risk well. The environment in some areas posed an infection control risk.
- Staff did not always assess, monitor or manage risks to people.
At North Manchester General Hospital, it was found:
- Staff did not always work well together for the benefit of women and people using the service.
- Staff did not always have access to enough suitable equipment to provide safe care and treatment.
- Staff could not always access care records and did not consistently manage medicines well.
- Managers were not always assured staff were competent.
- The service did not always control infection risk well.
- Staff did not always assess, monitor or manage risks to people. Opportunities to prevent or minimise harm were missed as the service did not operate effective and timely triage processes.
Due to concerns found during this inspection, the CQC has taken enforcement action. They have served the Trust with a warning to focus its attention on rapidly making the necessary improvements in each maternity service.
Deputy Director of Secondary and Specialist Healthcare at the CQC, Carolyn Jenkinson, said:
“When we inspected maternity services at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, it was disappointing to see a deterioration in the level of care being provided to women, people using the service and their babies. Due to our concerns, we issued the Trust with a warning notice requiring them to make rapid improvements. We found leaders had the skills and abilities to run maternity services and understood the issues they faced. However, they didn’t consistently address them in a timely way to ensure people were receiving safe care.
Across all three hospitals, we were concerned that people weren’t assessed in a timely way. Opportunities to prevent or minimise harm to people were missed as all three maternity services didn’t have an effective and timely triage in place to keep people safe.
Also, there were delays in people having elective caesarean sections and inductions of labour, which must be addressed as a priority to protect people and babies from coming to harm at such a vulnerable time.”
Since the CQC’s inspection, the Trust has prepared an action plan and has started to make some improvements. However, the CQC has said that they will continue to monitor the Trust very closely.
Comment
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s maternity services are sadly the latest in a long list of Trusts where issues have been found in relation to the care and treatment provided to mothers, babies and families.
Clearly, the CQC are taking the matter seriously and continues to do fantastic work through their national maternity inspection programme to highlight the good and the bad in an attempt to support learning and improvement at a national level.
However, clearly, there are still huge improvements required.
Expectant mothers have the right to have the best and happiest experience in pregnancy, labour and delivery and as things stand, it seems far from guaranteed that this is what to expect from our maternity services in this country.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Danielle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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