King’s Mill Hospital chief nurse welcomes ‘good’ maternity rating

The Care Quality Commission health watchdog has now published its report following an inspection of the trust’s King’s Mill Hospital, in Sutton, in November.

The CQC said there was a “positive culture” within the service, but the trust was told improvements must be made after the rating for safety dropped from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

The report raised concerns over maternity triage – where advice and assessments are given to pregnant women – and staff training.

For midwifery staff, compliance with training ranged from 39 per cent to 100 per cent.

The triage system was also found to be “ineffective”, as there were multiple options people could choose when calling the unit, which “posed a risk to those needing urgent care”

But the CQC highlighted two areas of “outstanding” practice, including education around feeding newborns and supporting staff with the challenges of returning to work from maternity leave.

The hospital as a whole is rated “outstanding” – the only hospital with this rating in the East Midlands.

Phil Bolton, trust chief nurse, said he was “really pleased” with the maternity rating.

He said: “It’s good news for our staff, for all the hard work they do every day under extreme pressure.

“It’s good for our local population to come in and expect a high standard of care.

“It is really important to note that nowhere in the report does it say our services are unsafe.”

He said training levels are now about 89-90 per cent and work on the triage system is “under way”.

Mr Bolton said: “For expectant parents, it’s an anxious and worrying time anyway – seeing things in the media and patient stories and feedback about poor experiences is really worrying.

“The thing with maternity services is it’s unpredictable. There’s a huge external focus on maternity and that extra scrutiny puts a lot of pressure on our leadership teams.

“Our organisation gives lots of good and high quality care.

“There have been challenges and difficulties across all our maternity services, but if you read our report it’s really good.

“King’s Mill remains outstanding and Sherwood Forest remains good, not many organisations in the country can say that.”

The report said “more women and birthing people were choosing to birth at King’s Mill hospital which was affecting the capacity of the service”.

Greg Rielly, CQC’s deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: “Both women and staff felt they could raise concerns without fear and we were pleased to find leaders were visible and approachable, for them to do so.

“However, we did find concerns around safety which leaders must work to address. We found the triage system was ineffective, with a multi-option phone line meaning calls could end up being put through to the labour ward.

“Additionally, while staff told us they knew how to prioritise calls of clinical concern, this wasn’t always clearly documented, meaning leaders couldn’t be assured appropriate triaging had taken place.

“We will continue to monitor the service, including through future inspections, to make sure that the trust improves the safety of this service.”