Maternity bosses told to address ‘unacceptable behaviours’ by some members of staff in Nottingham hospitals

Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre.
By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter

Hospital bosses have been told to address “unacceptable behaviours” by some members of staff on Nottingham’s maternity units which are creating a “defensive and fractious culture”.

A ‘thematic’ review, jointly commissioned by the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS England / Improvement – was brought in as a remedy to ongoing problems and to examine previous incidents.

The review’s interim report, published on May 26, details the initial findings and recommendations from the team.

As of May 17, 590 families had come forward to share their experiences at the trust, which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital.

A spokesperson for the review said that the report had been sent to the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust in early May to check for “factual accuracy”.

This will be the last report by the team as it was confirmed yesterday that Donna Ockenden will now lead her own review into the trust’s maternity services.

The report says that the issues must be “urgently addressed” by senior staff.

The report stated: “There is evidence of a lack of respect, appreciation and listening by some staff members in relation to their colleagues and to service users with some indications of bullying behaviour.

“There appears to be a small number of staff who display unacceptable behaviours such as being ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’, with some staff members describing being ‘scared’ of named colleagues.

“As a result, this is costing the Trust diminished employee commitment and creating a defensive and fractious culture.”

But it added that the “vast majority of staff are committed to a caring and compassionate culture where excellent care can be delivered”.

The report also found that 88 clinical guidelines “vary in quality” and some run to more than 70 pages, making them difficult for staff to access.

The trust was also found to have a “significantly higher” number of women stay at NUH for more than 21 days compared to five similar trusts.

From 2017 to 2021, 12 per cent of women stayed at NUH for more than five days after giving birth – compared to the other trusts which had an average of
2.4 per cent.

Concerns were also raised that not all qualified staff working in maternity services were up to date with training around foetal monitoring, something which has previously been raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In its recent report, the CQC has kept maternity services rated as ‘inadequate’ after first giving the trust the rating in 2020.

A spokesperson from the Independent Thematic Review of Maternity Services at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) thanked families who have shared their experiences.

They added: “In early May, the Trust was given the opportunity to check the report for factual accuracy and this process has been subsequently assured by the Commissioners.

“The report has been shared with families first, with opportunities to ask questions and attend briefing sessions over the coming days.

“We are confident that the recommendations within the report will help the Trust to make changes and long-term improvements to local maternity services for all families.”

Sharon Wallis, Director of Midwifery at Nottingham University Hospitals, said: “We are passionate about improving our maternity care, and welcome the report from the independent review team. We will work through the recommendations in the report to make the changes. We thank the families and staff who have taken part in the review so far, and will continue to work with the new review team.”

The trust said they take any reports of unacceptable behaviours very seriously and will address the issue promptly.

They added that they have implemented a telephone triage system across services.