“Trust has seized the opportunity” says Maternity Services Director

“Maternity Services at Ashford and St. Peter’s are much improved since the Healthcare Commission’s February 2007 survey;” says practicing Midwife and Associate Director for Maternity Services, Eileen Nolan.    “As Sir Ian Kennedy has urged, we seized the opportunity that the Healthcare Commission Survey presented and used the information as the basis for making targeted improvements.   The Healthcare Commission inspectors came back to see us in February 2008 and commented that ‘it became obvious during the visit that much progress had been made’ at the Unit.    Although the original survey did not recognise the specialist and complex nature of some of the cases we handle at St. Peter’s due to our co-location with Surrey’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) we are pleased that many women and their partners are now reporting improvements in standards of care at the Unit.”

In January 2008 the Trust published the results from a follow-up survey showed that maternity services have improved since the last national survey was carried out in February 2007.  The report, based on a survey of over 300 women in October 2007 with a 32 per cent response rate, showed that the care given during labour and delivery had 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 had increased from 75 to 79 per cent.    Other encouraging results included:

·          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 showed 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 Surrey’s 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.

Ms Nolan continued: “We have been working through an action plan targeted at improving those areas where the February 2007 survey indicated there were problems including recruitment of midwives.  We have eight student midwifes qualifying in September and they have all indicated that they are staying with us which is excellent news and will boost our numbers of qualified midwives.  We also have just received applications from a number of other students who have trained at other hospitals and are about to advertise for midwives from abroad.”

The February 2007 report raised issues about the quality of support and caring for babies after discharge.  In February 2008 the Maternity Unit introduced parenting classes in the postnatal ward and these are attended by both new mums and new dads.  In addition the Trust is recruiting three Maternity Assistants to work in the community alongside Community Midwives.  These Maternity Assistants will have additional training in baby care and feeding.

Commenting on the survey Director of Nursing and Operations Michaela Morris said: “As a practising Midwife myself 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.   However the latest survey by the Trust shows that we are making good progress towards improving services in areas that we have control over.”

In February 2008 the Trust launched a DVD which allows new parents to take a virtual tour of the Maternity Unit in the comfort of their own home.      Using real life expectant women and their partners and staff at St. Peter’s the DVD includes:

·          An expectant mum being monitored;

·          One of the two ‘Home from Home’ birthing rooms at St. Peter’s;

·          The role partners can play in assisting new mothers;

·          The water birthing pool;

·          A standard delivery room with the piped in gas and air which many women use as a means of pain relief;

·          The High Dependency Unit for mothers who have had to have a caesarean or other consultant intervention in the birth;

·          The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) which handles premature and sick babies from the Maternity Unit at St. Peter’s and for 90% of the births across Surrey;

·          Facilities for breastfeeding and bathing a new born babies; and

·          Facilities for parents to relax, watch TV, make themselves Tea and Coffee.

The 15 minute DVD will be available on request to parents as part of their parent education.   It can also be viewed in two parts on ‘You Tube’ at http://uk.youtube.com/user/asphmaternity.      

The Maternity Unit is keen to hear what women and their partners think about the maternity services provided at both Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals and they can be e-mailed at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .