Health watchdog criticises Hampshire trust over midwife exhaustion

The Care Quality Commission has found that midwives at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were worried about being too exhausted to keep patients safe, and has lowered its rating for maternity services at the trust.

An inspection was carried out following concerns raised by staff whistleblowers and complaints from patients.

The trust is responsible for Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, and Andover War Memorial Hospital.

The unannounced inspection at the end of last year found the service did not have enough midwifery and nursing staff to keep women and babies safe.

The commission said “Midwives had been going above and beyond to work in extremely challenging circumstances and spoke of low staffing levels and exhaustions” and also raised concerns that managers “were not always able to manage effectively”.

Julie Dawes, chief nurse at the trust, said they had been forced to redeploy staff as well as suspend education and training to focus on patient care in the last 18 months, adding “Safe and high quality maternity care is a priority for us and as such this is a disappointing report to receive.

“Our maternity teams continue to work tirelessly to support the women in their care.  This is a really useful report in supporting our vision of providing outstanding care to our patients and we are totally committed to resolving all of the issues raised.”

Chadwick Lawrence’s team of medical negligence lawyers have years of experience in high value and complex medical negligence compensation claims and have an excellent record.  The team is led by Tony May, a specialist cerebral palsy and birth injury solicitor, who has over 20 years experience in handling cases in which babies have been brain damaged or sustained other injuries as a result of medical negligence.  He and his team continue to represent many cerebral palsy children and young adults in medical negligence claims.  Tony also acts as a Court of Protection Deputy for many of the cerebral palsy and brain damaged clients that he has represented, so we can continue to support you after your case is settled.  Tony can be contacted by email on tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk.  Alternatively, please call and speak to any of Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist medical negligence Legal Aid and no win, no fee solicitors for free legal advice on Freephone 0800 304 7382