Maternity unit 'putting lives at risk'
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Your support makes all the difference.A notorious maternity unit is still putting mothers and babies at risk because it is "acutely" understaffed and run by bickering consultants, a report published yesterday said.
The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) issued its verdict after an inquiry into services at the Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals and NHS Trust. Even though the death rate at the unit – which averaged one a year since 1996 – was below the norm, the report said there was a continuing risk to mothers and babies due to "poor professional relationships" between consultants.
The National Clinical Assessment Authority had been called as a result to ensure more consistent treatment.
Critics of the report pointed to the authors' unwillingness to provide names or details, but the CHI insisted its remit was more general after separate inquiries into the cases resulting in death or disability.
Serious doubts about the unit were underlined last summer when a father, whose partner and baby died at the unit in 2000, lost another child during a birth aided by forceps.
Liz Fradd, CHI director of nursing, said: "Continued poor relationships between consultants pose a risk to the quality of patient care and a barrier to more effective teamwork. The trust must urgently resolve this unacceptable situation."
The unit, which is split between sites at Chertsey and Ashford in Surrey, is the sole provider of maternity services in the area since the closure four years ago of Ashford Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton. The report said that because of this it had been put under "increased pressure".
Poor management of the unit, which deals with 3,700 births a year, has meant too many registrars were involved in low-risk deliveries which could be handled by midwives.
A shortage of registrars has led to an over-reliance on locum doctors and agency midwives which "can pose a risk as they may be unfamiliar with the unit and its protocols".
Glenn Douglas, the chief executive of the trust, said it had already made "significant improvements" to its maternity services since the start of the CHI's investigation. He said the trust now had 16 midwifery care assistants and was due to complete a £1.4m upgrade to facilities at the maternity unit later this year.
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