Northampton: Maternity unit's staffing levels concerns regulator

Northampton General Hospital's maternity services were rated as requiring improvement

A maternity unit did not always have enough qualified and experienced staff to keep women safe from avoidable harm, inspectors have said.

The care regulator found the Northampton General Hospital (NGH) unit "did not always control infection risk well".

It rated the service as requiring improvement but said staff managed safety incidents well.

The hospital said it had undertaken "a lot of work" in the past 18 months.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said: "The service did not always have enough maternity staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment."

Inspectors did find there were enough medical staff.

One woman who used the service told the BBC staff said they were "overworked and overstressed".

"They literally look broken. It's not the midwives' fault they're in this situation but there's just not enough people there. It's scary," she said.

The CQC report also said: "Measures were not always in place for equipment and control measures to protect women, themselves and others from infection.

"Ward areas were not always clean and some furnishings were not well-maintained."

The report, following a December inspection, said not all staff had completed safeguarding training and "did not always fully and accurately completed records in relation to antenatal appointment and birthing plans".

Craig Howarth, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: "When we inspected maternity services at NGH we saw that staff were competent and treated patients with kindness but several improvements were needed across the department.

Staff told inspectors that although there were more opportunities to speak up, they felt their concerns hadn't always been listened to or addressed.

"We also saw some positive areas of care. Staff worked well together for the benefit of women and understood how to protect people from abuse and keep them safe," he added.

The hospital's chief executive Heidi Smoult welcomed the CQC report and acknowledged there was still "more still to do".

She said: "Over the past 18 months a lot of work has been undertaken including strengthening the senior leadership team in the unit and greater monitoring and proactive recruitment of maternity support workers, midwives, and international midwives.

"We have also developed, and are implementing, quality improvement plans which address local and national maternity priorities."

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