Panorama Programme One Born Every 40 Seconds
We would like to personally reassure women that our maternity unit is a safe place for you to give birth.
Many of you may have watched the Panorama programme last night “One Born Every Forty Seconds” and, although we weren't featured in the programme, those of you who did see it may have some general concerns about the care you will receive when you have your baby. We would like to personally reassure women that our maternity unit is a safe place for you to give birth.
To try and provide you with some reassurance we wanted to give you some information about our service:
The Hospital’s Maternity Unit is one of the busiest in London and many women choose to give birth here, almost 6,000 per year, as it is known locally for providing excellent services. The safety of mothers and their babies is always of paramount importance to us. Although we are a busy unit delivering lots of babies we have not had to close the Maternity Unit for a number of years. We have guidance for staff as to how to draw in additional staff and senior expertise when times are busy.
We also provide an out of hours midwifery manger on call rota and a have a 24 hour midwifery supervisor rota to support our staff. At busy periods we put in place a plan which helps us to manage our unit safely. A recent survey of women found that 95.9% received 1:1 care in labour.
Over the last year we have increased our delivery rooms by two to reduce delays in the induction of labour process and admissions of women in labour.
We have introduced a 24 hour triage facility to ensure that women have a full and immediate assessment on arrival to the Maternity Unit and are re-directed to where they need to be without delay.
In the last year we have recruited over 30 extra midwives to ensure that the Hospital is able to continue to provide the best possible care for expectant mothers and their babies. We have successfully recruited Midwives and Maternity Support Workers which has reduced our reliance on temporary and agency staff. You may have heard vacancy rates, particularly in London Hospitals being spoken about on Panorama, our vacancy rate currently stands at 5.5% which is low in comparison to other London Maternity Units.
Our consultants are also now present in the labour ward providing leadership and support for more hours a week than last year. We have increased Consultant presence on the unit from 60 hours per week to 98 hours per week from September 2010. This provides senior medical supervision for women in labour and in the maternity unit from 8am until 10:30pm. Outside of these hours there is a Consultant on call who is regularly in touch with Midwives and Doctors throughout the night to provide senior advice and they can be on site within 30 minutes if required.
We hope this has reassured you, however, if you still have any concerns or questions please discuss with your doctor or midwife at your next appointment.
Anna Dellaway - Head of Midwifery
Florence Wilcock - Consultant Obstetrician and Clinical Lead in Obstetrics
26th July 2011