A report published today (25th January 2008) by Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust shows that maternity services have improved since the last national survey was carried out in February 2007.

·          Download a copy of the survey (PDF)

The report, based on a survey of over 300 women in October 2007 with a 32 per cent response rate, shows that the care given during labour and delivery has shown significant improvement with 91 per cent rating care as good, very good or excellent compared to 80 percent in the February 2007 survey.   Positive ratings for care after birth have increased from 75 to 79 per cent.    Other encouraging results include:

·          Mothers who say they got the pain relief they needed increased from 43 to 62 per cent;

·          Increasing confidence and trust in maternity service staff from 61% to 81%;

·          A reduction from 56% to zero in the number of mothers saying that staff did not allow their husband, partner or companion to be with them for labour and/or birth;

The report also shows that for medical reasons 10 per cent of respondents had no choice over where to have their baby.   This is a reflection of the specialist nature of services provided by the Maternity Service at Ashford and St. Peter’s which is supported by the specialist Neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU) at St. Peter’s Hospital.

Other areas of improvement include cleaning and food.   93 per cent (compared to 88% in February 2007) said that the hospital room or ward was fairly or very clean.   70 per cent (compared to 57%) said they had the right amount of food and 38% (compared to 27%) said they rated the food as good or very good.

Commenting on the survey Director of Nursing and Operations Michaela Morris said: “As a practising midwife I know that it is essential that we have a robust and up to date picture of what mothers and their partners think of our services.    This enables us to make improvements to the service and respond to what women want.    We don’t entirely agree with some of the results from the national survey carried out in February 2007 due to the specialist services needed by some mothers who deliver at St. Peter’s and our lack of control over community midwives who operate from other sites but look after our mothers on discharge.   However the latest survey by the Trust shows that we are making progress towards improving services in areas that we have control over.”