CQC recognise maternity staff as compassionate and patient centred
A CQC inspection of maternity services at Kettering General Hospital’s found hard working teams focussed on the needs of families and improving the care they receive, but says services require further improvements in a report published on March 7, 2024.
The inspection took place in October 2023 as part of the national programme which inspects all hospitals providing maternity services.
Following the inspection the service was rated requires improvement overall.
As well as highlighting areas of improvement, inspectors said it was clear that staff and leaders were ‘compassionate and hard working’ and engaged well with communities to ensure services were tailored to meet local needs.
Kettering General Hospital has welcomed the report and highlighted that it was already addressing some of the areas raised.
KGH Chief Nursing Officer, Jayne Skippen, said: “We take the recommendations of the CQC report very seriously and a lot of work has been taking place since the inspection to address some of the issues raised.
“These include improving our triage process; developing robust recruitment and retention plans to address staffing challenges; and employing a patient experience midwife to support statutory Duty of Candour.
“Our staff are absolutely dedicated to providing safe maternity services centred around the individual needs of each patient, and we are glad this was recognised by inspectors.
“We recognise our current estate needs refurbishment and this can make our wards and departments look untidy. I’d like to reassure the public that we consistently achieve and maintain our cleaning standards and score highly on our monthly inspection audits. We are also developing long-term plans to improve facilities for maternity services.”
The Trust’s new Triage risk assessment process will be implemented by April this year.
The report will be published on CQC’s website
What the CQC inspected
This was a focused inspection, so CQC didn’t rate how effective, caring and responsive the services were. These domains are currently unrated. The trust rating has not changed following the inspection; therefore, it remains rated as requires improvement overall.
Areas for improvement highlighted in the report included:
- Cleanliness, design and upkeep of the maternity unit’s aging estate
- Need to improve its triage system to better determine urgency
- More staff are needed to deliver the best care
- Some of the hospitals processes and paperwork need improvement
Inspectors also highlighted:
- Staff and leaders are compassionate and work hard
- Leaders generally had the skills and abilities to run the service and were visible and approachable to both staff and people using the service.
- Managers made sure incidents were investigated thoroughly and shared lessons learned – and when things went wrong, staff apologised and were compassionate, providing information and support.
- Leaders engaged with women and people using the service, staff, equality groups, the public, and local organisations, to help tailor their services to meet local needs.
- A number of areas of outstanding practice including staff training and safety work during the pandemic, examples of quality improvements showcased at a major midwifery conference and work to improve the service’s safety culture.