More maternity service worries at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Inadequate staffing and poor equipment management

Maternity units at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital were rated “inadequate” with low staffing levels proving to be a risk for women and their baby’s safety. Inadequate staffing numbers also had serious knock-on implications as staff weren’t always able to take their breaks, which affected their well-being, morale, and ability to do their job.

In addition, medicine and equipment management at the two hospitals were also criticised. Out-of-date milk, liquid medicines without dates for when they were opened or expired and medicine strips without boxes were identified. Also, clinical equipment such as foetal heart detectors, incubators, blood pressure monitors and resuscitators were not always serviced as often as they should be. Furthermore, CQC Inspectors found some women’s care had been delayed for up to six hours as doctors were not available, which had resulted in some women discharging themselves from hospital too early.

Here are the CQC’s findings:

• St Mary’s Birth Centre – The rating for safe remains as good and the rating for well-led has moved down from good to requires improvement which means the overall rating for maternity services at St Mary’s Birth Centre remains as good.
• Leicester Royal Infirmary – the rating for maternity services at Leicester Royal Infirmary has moved down from good to requires improvement. The Safe rating moved down from requires improvement to inadequate, and well-led moved down from good to requires improvement.
• Leicester General Hospital – the rating for maternity services at Leicester General Hospital has moved down from good to requires improvement. The Safe rating has moved down from requires improvement to inadequate and well-led moved down from good to requires improvement.

New leadership in place

Following the inspection, CQC issued a warning notice to focus the Trust’s attention on rapidly making the necessary improvements to how they should be managing each maternity service. In response, the Trust stated some of the challenges that had been highlighted had already been identified before the inspection and that they were already starting to make improvements. They reassured mothers-to-be that they now had a new maternity services leadership in place and were committed to providing safe, high quality and compassionate maternity care and ensure a culture of safety and openness.

Access to safe, effective and personalised maternity care

Rachael Flanagan, Head of Medical Negligence and Personal Injury at Alsters Kelley said. “Every pregnant woman should have access to safe, effective and truly personalised maternity care. It’s essential that Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital take the findings of the report seriously and do what they can to reduce ongoing risk and prevent any tragedies happening.”

Free initial meeting for support and advice

If you have any concerns about the treatment either you and your baby have received and would like help or advice, please contact Rachael Flanagan on 01926 356030 or email rachael.flanagan@alsterskelley.com. As experienced medical negligence lawyers, we can help to recover necessary compensation for victims of negligence who have suffered physical and/or psychological injury.