Singleton Hospital maternity unit unsafe, says report

Leiha Shaw, with her partner Andrew, says her experience of giving birth to son Orson at Singleton Hospital made her not want to have another baby

A maternity unit has failed to meet safe staffing levels for four years and had insufficient measures to stop baby abductions, a report says.

A regulator highlighted "significant patient safety concerns" at the unit at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.

One mother told the BBC she was so traumatised by her own experience she never wanted to give birth again.

Swansea Bay health board said extra staff have been recruited and it is focused on making improvements.

Singleton's maternity and neonatal service was placed into enhanced monitoring by the Welsh government on Tuesday due to concerns raised by families.

The report by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) listed a number of concerns including:

• One emergency theatre space was described as unfit for purpose

• Pain relief was not always timely

• Staff were disillusioned, undervalued and disconnected with hospital leadership

• Around 300 reports of incidents without proper evidence that lessons have been learned

Leiha Shaw describes being in a "trauma bubble" after her time with Swansea Bay's maternity service

Leiha Shaw, 37, gave birth to Orson, now five, at the hospital, where difficulties during his birth meant he was placed in the special care baby unit for the first few weeks of his life.

Her experience at its baby unit left her feeling that she did not want to have another child - until her surprise pregnancy with her now one-year-old son, Ozayiah.

"Ozayiah was the best surprise ever, but I never actually wanted to birth another child because I was so traumatised," said Ms Shaw, from Swansea.

"The whole pregnancy was consumed with anxiety.

"You're meant to be in the baby bubble after you had a child. I think I was just in a trauma bubble, because I was just reliving what I'd gone through previously."

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Ms Shaw said the care she had from midwives when they were available was "brilliant", and that she hopes a recruitment drive by the health board will make a difference to other mothers.

She said of the staff: "They're so burnt out. With Ozayiah, I went in at six-thirty in the morning and my midwife left my side at eleven o'clock in the evening and was back in at seven o'clock the next morning. How can they sustain that lifestyle?"

The health minister has placed Singleton's maternity and neonatal services under "enhanced monitoring"

An inspection at Swansea's maternity service in September found unsafe staffing levels since 2019, a lack of staff sticking to mandatory training, and not enough being done to ensure babies were kept safe and secure.

It found that staff were working hard under pressure, but fewer than half of them who were surveyed said they would be happy if their own family members received the same care.

The HIW report said: "Many staff members we spoke to told us they were exhausted and concerned about the impact of low numbers of midwifery staff on patient safety."

One patient told inspectors she had had good support from her midwife, but that she also had to wait more than eight hours to be taken to theatre to be stitched following a grade three tear.

Inspectors also raised concerns about the risk of harm posed by having the maternity unit at Singleton, while critical care, intensive care and the emergency department are based at Morriston Hospital - roughly eight miles (12.8km) away.

Rhys Jones says the HIW report did not only find issues related to staffing levels at the maternity ward

Rhys Jones, from HIW, acknowledged staffing issues have been seen on a national level, but said "at the point of time of the inspection, the staffing levels were posing too much risk, and more acutely felt in Swansea Bay than we've seen in other inspections".

Leadership, security and infection control measures also needed addressing, he said.

Swansea Bay health board said the report provided a snapshot of the service during September, and that improvements it has since made meant it is a different picture today.

The health board said that HIW has described their improvement plan as "providing sufficient assurance".

"Since the HIW unannounced visit on 5-7 September, we have successfully recruited 23 midwives and 14 maternity care assistants, all of whom are already making a valuable contribution to the work of the service and who have already relieved much of the pressure the service has faced over the last couple of years," it added.