Manchester maternity service ordered to immediately improve
- Published
Three areas of concern requiring immediate action were identified at the unit in March
A maternity service has been ordered to urgently improve by the care watchdog.
An inspection at Saint Mary's Hospital in Manchester found the unit did not operate effectively to protect patients, did not provide treatment quickly enough, and did not having enough skilled and experienced staff.
The areas of concern were raised after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March.
A hospital spokeswoman said "significant progress" had been made.
The inspection took place between 7-9 March and on 24 March the watchdog issued a warning notice outlining three areas of concern, declaring the service did not:
Operate effective and timely triage process
Facilitate timely access to appropriate treatment
Always have enough sufficiently skilled and experienced midwifery and medical staff to appropriately assess and care for people and mitigate risks in a timely manner
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust was given a 12-week warning notice period to demonstrate it had made improvements.
An action plan was developed and a report on progress was presented to Manchester City Council's health scrutiny committee, external earlier this week.
The report revealed improvements had been seen in midwifery triage waiting times, improvements in capacity for elective caesarean sections and proactive recruitment and retention for midwifery and medical staff.
Professor Cheryl Lenney, chief nurse for the trust, said improvements were made "immediately" and the Trust shared regular updates with the CQC.
"We immediately began to implement the improvements required as soon as we received the warning notice four months ago," Ms Lenney said.
She said the hospital was "fully committed to continually improving" services and had "full confidence in our people and our ability to provide great maternity services to women and their families within Greater Manchester".
The CQC said it expected to publish a full report on the hospital within weeks.
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