Following its recent inspection of Bedford Hospital’s Maternity Unit the CQC has released its final report today. The CQC conducted a one-day visit to the maternity department in November 2020 and the CQC have now made a number of recommendations for improvement.
David Carter, Chief Executive at Bedfordshire Hospitals said,
“We took immediate action in the areas identified by the CQC and will continue to make improvements. As an organisation committed to delivering excellent care, the CQC feedback was disappointing for us to hear but we are focussing our effort on ensuring that the Bedford maternity service is able to meet the standards of care we aspire to.
We are continuing to recruit more qualified midwives, and we are ensuring that we fully support and value those staff as they perform their vital role in caring for our local population.
“Our staff have been and continue to work incredibly hard to maintain the safety of our unit and this is endorsed by the positive feedback we continually receive from our patients.”
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Notes to Editors:
- The Maternity Unit at Bedford Hospital has now been rated ‘Inadequate’ but this does not affect the overall rating of Bedford Hospital which remains at ‘Requires Improvement’ or the rating of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which remains ‘Good’
- Bedford Hospital has already addressed the CQC recommendations via a number of actions that include:
- Launching a targeted midwifery recruitment campaign to address midwife shortages in the unit
- Appointing a Director of Midwifery prior to the CQC inspection who will start in post in February 2021
- Implementing a detailed Staffing Assessment tool to ensure that staffing levels are actively assessed, reviewed and escalated appropriately on each shift
- Increasing the hours of consultant presence on the labour ward.
- Tightening risk and governance procedures to ensure incidents are appropriately graded and investigated and lessons are learnt
- Implementing a new handover process in line with national guidance
- Introducing a new formal pathway of care for those women requiring high risk care
- Editors should note that at the time of the CQC visit on 5 Nov 2020, the latest data from the MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report was not yet available. The report, published on 10 December 2020 shows Bedford Hospital as joint 3rd out of the 39 NHS Trusts in its peer group for the lowest perinatal mortality rates. https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk
- Bedford Hospital NHS Trust merged with the Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust on 1 April 2020 to form Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.