Watchdog inspects Bradford maternity services following 'whistleblowing' concerns
The Neonatal Unit was rated as 'outstanding' and Maternity Services re-rated as 'requiring improvement'
A watchdog says it's carried out an unannounced inspection of the maternity services at Bradford Royal Infirmary after receiving some ‘whistleblowing concerns’ from staff and patients.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated neonatal services as ‘outstanding’, while maternity services were re-rated as 'requiring improvement' overall, although inspectors say the two areas they looked at – ‘safe’ and ‘well-led’ - were both rated as good.
CQC says it carried out an unannounced focused inspection of maternity services and medical care at Bradford Royal Infirmary in May due to receiving some concerns around safe care and treatment.
Inspectors also looked at neonatal services due to concerns raised about how the service learned from incidents.
The report says neonatal services were ‘outstanding’ in the areas of caring and well-led, and ‘good’ in the areas of safe, effective and responsive.
Maternity services were re-rated as requires improvement overall, with some issues flagged around staffing levels which sometimes left staff feeling ‘overwhelmed’. It also says that ‘to date’ the CQC continues to receive a ‘small number of whistleblowing concerns”. Specific concerns were escalated to senior leaders who provided assurances that they had been investigated and actions were being take.
The report found there was a new leadership structure in place with several processes for staff to escalate any concerns.
Sheila Grant, CQC deputy director of operations for the north, said:
“Before our inspection at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we had received some concerns about the care and treatment people were receiving in medicines, neonatal and maternity services. However, when we inspected these three services, we found the concerns were unsubstantiated and people using the services spoke positively about their experiences of care.
“In neonatal services, we found staff were providing exceptional care and treatment to people. Safety and continuity of care was consistently a priority for families and their babies, so they received the best possible experience during a difficult time. In this service we were pleased to see an open and honest culture, and managers regularly praised the hard work and commitment shown by staff.
“Staff in medical care showed compassion towards people. People told us they felt included in their care planning and were positive about their experience. Leaders had also created a culture of safety and learning from incidents, to help prevent them from happening again.
“In maternity services, we found there were ongoing improvements, and people were positive about their care, praising their midwives and saying they would recommend them to others.
“The trust should look to learn how they can extend the excellent practice we found in neonatal to their other services. We will continue to monitor the trust and will return to check on progress.”
This comes after an internal investigation into the deaths of two babies in the neonatal unit during a bacterial outbreak in 2021.
Last year Dr Max McLean resigned as chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals, claiming the trust failed to properly investigate those deaths and 'covered up' a string of failures.
This summer NHS England announced it was taking enforcement action against the trust, saying it had concerns about its governance.
The trust has previously said it is working to resolve matters.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Executive, Professor Mel Pickup, said the CQC’s outstanding rating was testament to the ‘hard work and dedication of all the staff’ who worked on the Neonatal Unit:
“The Neonatal Unit provides a unique and specialist service to babies, mothers and families at what is often an extremely worrying and emotional time. I’m very proud that the CQC found the team to be committed to treating patients and those close to them with compassion and kindness.
“I would like to thank every colleague on the unit for helping us continue to develop a culture of quality that is embedded in our work every day and reflects the Trust’s aim of delivering outstanding care for patients.
“The Maternity services improvements are a credit to colleagues working in this area. These, together with the outstanding rating for our Neonatal services are a clear indication of our trajectory of improvement.
“I’m pleased that the CQC has recognised our medical care as ‘good’ and well-led with patients receiving compassionate care and treatment from our dedicated and committed colleagues. These are strong foundations for further improvement to deliver even better quality care.
“While our outstanding Neonatal rating and improvements in other services are great news for patients, colleagues and communities, this is not about standing still. There will always be areas we need to focus on to improve service users and carers’ experience of our services and we will work tirelessly to do this.”