KGH receives national maternity safety award after Downing Street reception
Kettering General Hospital has received a top national award from a mother and baby charity for its outstanding staff safety training work before, during, and after the Covid pandemic.
On Wednesday, October 4, the hospital’s Chief Executive, midwifery, nursing, and consultant leaders*, attended a pre-award reception at Number 11 Downing Street organised by Baby Lifeline UK - an organisation which champions great care for mothers and babies.
Following the Wednesday reception last night, Thursday, October 5, the hospital team was presented with the ‘Baby Lifeline Training National Award for Improving Safety on the Frontline – Investing in the Workforce’ during a gala dinner at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London.
Baby Lifeline Chief Executive Judy Ledger said: “Our award to Kettering General Hospital recognises its outstanding dedication to midwifery and obstetrics training, over a number of years, to make the hospital as safe as possible for mothers and babies. Their investment in this has been outstanding. It included a tremendous commitment to safety training even during the height of the Covid pandemic - where, staff had to do training while wearing restrictive personal protective equipment. I am delighted to see the hospital continues to consistently invest in training its workforce to the highest standards to deliver safe care for mothers and their babies.”
Kettering General Hospital’s Director of Midwifery, Mara Tonks, said: “This feels like a reward for all the effort our teams have made to continually review and improve the way we train our staff, and have systems in place to maintain safety, over a number of years. Our midwifes receive 56 hours of standard training from the Trust each year but on top of this we do a lot of other additional training with external bodies. Examples have included training our community midwives in dealing with emergencies during home births, how to support mothers who are poorly after birth, and how to monitor baby heartbeats and be aware of danger signs. We are very proud of the way our midwifes, obstetricians, neonatal teams and anaesthetists, all work together to make conditions safe as possible for mothers and babies.”
The award was presented by BBC presenter Nick Owen and Eddie Morris, Medical Director for NHS East of England (and the Past President of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists/Chair of Baby Lifeline’s Multi Professional Advisory Panel).
The earlier Baby Lifeline celebration in Downing Street was also attended by the NHS’s Chief Nursing Officer, Dame Ruth May, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Ranee Thakar, and the Baby Lifeline judging panel (see website www.babylifeline.org.uk).
Kettering General Hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer, Jayne Skippen, said: “This award highlights just how much effort we have put into developing safe and supportive care for mums and babies. Our staff work together – whatever their discipline – to ensure our teams have the right skills and education to do their jobs in the most effective and supportive way possible.”
Kettering General Hospital’s Chief Executive, Deborah Needham, said: “I am so pleased to see our maternity and obstetrics team winning this prestigious national award. It is a testament to all the hard work they have put in over many years, and in the face of many challenges, not least of which has been the Covid-19 pandemic, to create a safe and secure environment for the 3,000 families our maternity unit supports each year. I am extremely proud of the team who deliver fantastic care every single day.”
Other examples of the ways that hospital has addressed safety included:
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Consistently achieving compliance in the eight core modules of the national maternity Core Competency Framework since its introduction in 2020
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On the International Day of the Midwife (May 5, 2023), Kettering and Northampton general hospitals hosted a Northamptonshire Midwifery Conference which showcased a host of improvements the two hospitals had introduced
Mara said: “At this event we demonstrated how hard we have worked – across the whole county - to improve safety and the maternity experience since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. At KGH those things included a ground-breaking national pilot work on supporting bereaved families, establishing pre-term lead midwives and clinics to support mums likely to have premature babies, providing additional skill straining in fetal monitoring for our staff, and carrying out audit checks to address any emerging safety concerns at the earliest possible stage.”