Maternity services in Essex hospitals facing staffing issues
The crisis comes as a large number of the workforce is set to retire at the same time
An Essex hospital’s maternity services facing staff shortages led to a downgrade to ‘requires improvement’ largely because of a workforce set to retire at the same time.
Maternity services across the country are facing “similar staffing issues” to those in Essex that led ratings at Colchester Hospital being downgraded from ‘Good’ to ‘Requires Improvement’.
An extra 30 midwives are being recruited from Italy and Portugal to work at Ipswich, Colchester and Clacton hospitals in light of a Care Quality Commission inspection that found sustained periods of reduced staffing.
The shortage of staff is not related to Brexit, a spokesperson for the hospital added, but rather to do with the age profile of current midwives – many of whom are reaching retirement age at the same time.
She added a lot was being done to accommodate career progression for midwives to encourage more to join and stay in the profession.
The unannounced inspection followed six whistleblowing reports between August 2020 and February 2021 in relation to midwifery staffing levels at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust’ (ESNEFT) maternity wards.
The Care Quality Commission found sustained periods of reduced staffing as well as issues with the management of the maternity triage system and the process for induction of labour when it visited between April 7 to April 15 2020.
Since then a number of improvements have started.
Four workstreams will address organisational development, safety culture, governance, and staffing and workforce.
The Programme Board had been formed to address continuous improvement in maternity services.
A report from ESNEFT to the Essex Health Overview Policy and Scrutiny Committee meeting on September 2 said: “The Trust was aware of the challenges within maternity services prior to the CQC inspection and was taking steps to improve the leadership and governance structures to support them.
“On 31 August a new Director of Midwifery joined ESNEFT to provide expert clinical leadership, and the Trust is in the process of recruiting 30 additional midwives to support our services.
“Maternity services across the country are facing similar staffing issues and we are not an outlier.
“The Trust Board takes these matters very seriously and welcomes the support and guidance our national and local colleagues and stakeholders to carry out the improvement plan.”
A spokesperson for ESNEFT added: “There is a nationwide shortage of midwifes which is the major reason for staffing issues. Nurses and midwives are also eligible to retire at 55.
“We are all doing everything we can to address the staffing issue and are very much looking forward to welcoming 30 international midwives to East Suffolk and North Essex NHS foundation Trust in the coming weeks and months.”