Northampton maternity unit needs to recruit further fifth of its midwifery workforce

The Care Quality Commission has said Northampton General Hospital did not always have enough experienced and qualified maternity staff to keep women safe from avoidable harm.

Figures obtained show that 49 serious incidents have occurred in the hospital’s maternity services in four years, who said they had undertaken “a lot of work” in the last 18 months and a recruitment process was under way.

The care regulator last week published a report following an inspection of the service, rating it as requiring improvement.

A spokesperson from the trust said it had “an open culture of reporting and investigating adverse incidents.”

They added “Nationally maternity services have higher numbers of serious incidents, compared to other departments in any acute hospital trust, due to certain triggers that result in a serious incident being declared.”

There are currently 37 vacancies for midwives but the trust said it manages staffing levels “closely and ensure that all shifts are covered by bank or midwives working altered shift patterns, to ensure that we are able to provide a safe maternity experience”.

The trust spokesperson went on to say “The continuous improvement of our maternity services is an area of great focus for our hospital chief executive and hospital trust board.

“Over the past 18 months a lot of work has been undertaken to improve our maternity services and good progress has been made, including strengthening the senior leadership team in the unit, greater monitoring and proactive recruitment of maternity support workers, midwives and international midwives.”

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