Worcestershire hospital's maternity service told to improve

The Care Quality Commission said it carried out the inspection after several whistleblowers raised concerns about the maternity service at the hospital

A maternity service has been told to make improvements after several whistleblowers raised concerns.

The service at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in December.

Inspectors said staffing levels were lower than planned, morale was low and staff did not think their concerns were listened to.

The hospital said more midwives should be recruited next week.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust's overall rating remains as "requires improvement", the same as its maternity services which has now been moved down from a "good" rating.

The inspection team said it had been concerned about the hospital's maternity services after it was contacted by four whistleblowers between July and September about safety in the department.

It said midwives told them the service was always short-staffed and they were often moved within the department.

They also found not all staff were up-to-date with training, they did not always feel supported by managers and not all safety incidents were reported.

The hospitals chief nursing officer said they were aiming to recruit more midwives by next week

But their report said staff at the hospital did work as a team to give mothers and babies good care and had effective prevention and control measures for infection.

"Staff should never feel that their concerns are not listened to and we are pleased service managers have initiated meetings to listen to staff with a view to taking action in the problem areas," said Ted Baker, the chief inspector.

In September, the trust's main hospitals, including the Royal, were moved out of special measures after nearly five years.

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The CQC has told the trust it must make improvements which include listening to staff, monitoring staffing levels and reporting and learning from all incidents.

Chief nursing officer at the trust, Vicky Morris, said they were already making changes over the staffing issues before the inspection.

"We have run a very successful recruitment campaign for midwives and once the next round of recruitment is completed next week we should have filled all our vacancies and recruited an additional 10 midwives," she said.