Broomfield, Basildon and Southend hospitals 'must improve' maternity

Basildon University Hospital has recruited more midwives since the CQC inspection

Regulators have told a major hospital trust to improve staffing following an inspection of maternity units.

The Care Quality Commission rated the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, and its three hospitals, as "requires improvement".

The report said there were not enough staff at Basildon to keep babies safe.

The trust hailed the "positive findings" in the report and said it has recruited more staff since the inspection.

Trust acting chief executive Hannah Coffey said it was "an improving organisation with a dedicated workforce"

"While [staffing] is a national problem affecting many hospitals, leaders must develop ways of minimising the risk to patients this causes," said CQC head of hospital inspection Zoe Robinson.

Basildon's maternity unit was rated "inadequate" in 2020 and it was ordered to urgently improve after failings were found in six serious cases.

The unit however, along with the rest of the trust, was rated "requires improvement" in December 2021.

Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford has a specialist burns unit

The CQC, because of remaining concerns, inspected maternity at Basildon, Broomfield and Southend hospitals during August and September this year.

It also visited diagnostic imaging at Southend.

It said it spoke with 104 staff, 12 patients and relatives and reviewed 29 sets of care records.

The mid and south Essex trust, which includes Southend University Hospital, serves a population of more than 1.2 million

The trust is one of the largest in England, serving a population of more than 1.2 million, with about 1,800 inpatient beds and 15,000 staff.

Across the trust, inspectors found:

•Not all staff completed mandatory training

•Maternity services did not have enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe

•The trust did not always share learning from incidents

•Women using the trust's maternity services were not always triaged within target times

The report however commended the trust for collaboration, its complaints procedure, feedback system and "effective governance".

The CQC said the Basildon maternity unit did "not have enough nursing and midwifery staff to keep women and babies safe".

Triaging

Data showed that whole-time equivalent midwife vacancies almost doubled to 48 between the 2021 inspection and 31 August this year.

The report however noted the unit had two dedicated midwives for triaging, and that 100% of women were triaged within 30 minutes of arrival during five of the first seven months in 2022.

The hospital had recruited 18 newly qualified midwives, four international midwives and - following the inspection - a further "four experienced midwives".

The unit delivers up to 350 babies each month.

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Acting trust chief executive Hannah Coffey said there were now 52 newly qualified midwives across the three hospitals.

"There are some very positive findings in this report," said Ms Coffey.

"We are seeing a sustained improvement which ensures we can always provide women with one-to-one care in labour."

She added: "We are an improving organisation with a dedicated workforce committed to providing the very best care."

The CQC also gave the trust a rating of "good" when it came to being effective and caring.

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