- CQC raises serious safety concerns around maternity care at Blackpool Victoria Hospital
- Trust has received series of formal notices from regulator over last year
A troubled acute trust has been sent a further warning notice after inspectors found severe shortages of midwives were causing dangerous delays to labour inductions.
During one day in June, the Care Quality Commission found eight high-risk women at Blackpool Victoria Hospital had waited prolonged time periods for their labour to be induced.
They said one woman had waited five days, while another who was forced to wait more than two days despite her waters having broken on the ward. Delays to labour induction can lead to serious safety risks for mothers and babies.
The hospital’s maternity services, previously rated “good” for safety, have now been rated “inadequate” in this domain. The overall rating for maternity has dropped to “requires improvement”.
The problems were caused by severe shortages of midwives at the hospital, which had struggled to bring in agency staff due to a lack of availability in the area. However, inspectors also said there was a lack of any discussion or attention to the issues within the trust, despite the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch previously highlighting concerns.
In July, it received an urgent enforcement notice after the CQC noted the trust was failing to identify, manage and document sepsis in patients, and had the lowest audit scores in the North West region for compliance against the recommended sepsis care pathways. The regulator also said concerns raised in 2021 around the management of patients who required rapid tranquilisation (chemical restraint) had not sparked any significant improvement.
A shortage in gastroenterology consultants was also noted in July, with one post being vacant since 2019, along with the lack of any specialist stroke consultant cover on site at weekends. As a result of these problems, the safety rating for the trust’s medical division was downgraded from “requires improvement” to “inadequate”.
The trust also received a warning notice last autumn after inspectors found a “chaotic” emergency department, with a serious lack of oversight of safety incidents by managers.
Trish Armstrong-Child, chief executive since mid-2021, said the trust is already working to address the CQC’s concerns and has joined the national maternity safety support programme. She also noted the maternity services were rated “good” for caring after the inspection, with some areas of outstanding practice identified.
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Source date
1 September 2022
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