Maternity and gynaecology care shows improvement at Newham Hospital
Maternity and gynaecology care at Newham Hospital has improved, reports health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Inspectors visited in July 2017 to speak to women and staff about the quality of care provided in maternity and gynaecology, and as a result has now upgraded its rating from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Requires Improvement’.
In a report published today (20 December 2017) the CQC reports that processes are now in place to manage risk and that staff told them improvements have been made.
Inspectors also praised leadership as being more visible with regular visits made to the maternity and gynaecology units, where more than 6,500 babies are delivered each year.
However, the CQC also reported some areas of concern which the hospital has been working hard to address. Since inspectors visited:
- a major recruitment drive has slashed the number of staff vacancies, with recruitment in place to appoint to the remaining eight posts by Christmas making the units fully staffed
- a comprehensive training and development programme is in place for all maternity staff to address concerns raised around documentation and learning from incidents
- team ‘huddles’ and meetings are used to discuss any patient complaints and investigations into incidents to help share learning and ensure that mistakes are not repeated
- the hospital has been nominated for a national Royal College of Midwives award for its Caring for You campaign – a scheme to improve the morale of midwives.
Chris Pocklington, Managing Director at Newham Hospital, said: “I am incredibly proud of Newham’s staff whose hard work and dedication to patients has made care safer for women and babies, and improved our rating.
“We know that there is considerably more work to be done to always provide women with the outstanding maternity care that we aspire to, but great strides have been made in a short space of time and we are determined to continue to improve.”
Professor Ted Baker, England’s Chief Inspector of Hospital’s said: “There have been some improvements at Newham University Hospital which I am pleased about, but there are still areas of its maternity services that can provide a better standard or care.
“I was particularly pleased to see improvements to security at the hospital.
"It was good that most staff commented there had been improvement since the last inspection with the leadership much more visible and visiting the units on a regular basis.”