said maternity services were facing “unprecedented times”, with staff shortages and increasingly complex births adding to the strain. The closure of the maternity unit – sometimes for up to 24 hours – is becoming more common, with women being forced to divert to other hospitals which can accommodate them.
At the end of last year, a board report showed that a whistleblower had raised concerns that maternity services at the trust were “so unsafe as to be putting women and babies lives in danger every day”.Mr Morritt said at a board meeting on Wednesday: “I think all of us recognise that we do have challenges in maternity and I think if we’re being honest with ourselves, we probably didn’t acknowledge and recognise that they were quite as significant as those identified by the CQC.
The use of midwives as scrub practitioners and fire drills were also raised as concerns. Care group director of midwifery Sue Glendenning said staff were upset by the news, with one matron in tears.“It just doesn’t feel like we’ve got enough resource,” she said. “From what I’m reading and what I’m seeing, the patients didn’t actually raise any specific concerns. Generally they think, and are, getting good care. It’s around the governance and how we provide that assurance [to the CQC].
Non-executive director Steven Holmberg said the same issues kept cropping up in CQC reports. Lorraine Boyd, another non-executive director, added: “Maternity has been sending out distress signals for some time. The last few days have seen a period of intense reflection by everybody.”