Midwifery staff whistleblowing to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) could be repeated, if they lack confidence in the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s process for reporting issues, a councillor has warned.
Improvements made in maternity services at Bedford Hospital and the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, after a November 2023 CQC inspection, were reported to Central Bedfordshire Council’s social care, health and housing overview and scrutiny committee.
“This inspection didn’t have an overall impact on the rating for the trust, which remains at ‘good’,” said the report. “But it received 11 ‘must do’ and seven ‘should do’ actions from the CQC.
“These must be taken to comply with its legal obligations around midwifery staffing levels, mandatory training compliance, medicines management, and triage pathway and facilities.
“The other areas were equipment checking compliance and storage of waste, governance processes, risk assessments and learning from incidents, and poor culture and behaviour, including supporting staff in challenging unacceptable behaviour such as racism and discrimination.”
Conservative Eaton Bray cllr Philip Spicer told the committee: “The reason we’ve got this report is their own staff were whistleblowing to the CQC saying there were issues.
“Nothing indicates why the hospital isn’t first to know when an issue arises.” he explained. “The real reason why this report came about is the staff members didn’t feel confident enough to talk to their own management and had to go outside of the organisation.
“In another two or three years, exactly the same report could come out again because staff aren’t confident in the process. We need to understand from the hospital side that the staff feel confident to report these issues.”
Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust chief nurse Liz Lees acknowledged: “Some staff went to the CQC anonymously.
The CQC had the chance to speak to them and that’s where some of the cultural issues were raised. It’s made us look completely differently at this.
Read: Grieving mother left feeling “bottom of the barrel” by Bedford Maternity unit after miscarriage
“Our freedom to speak up guardians have focused on working on the shop floor with staff to understand the information we get is reflected on what if feels like there.
“There are staff focus groups where people have the opportunity to feedback and to raise concerns with us as an executive. It’s a big workforce and getting to everyone can be difficult, but it’s a main priority for us in our cultural and inclusion work.”
Liberal Democrat Leighton Linslade South cllr cillor Emma Holland-Lindsay, who chairs the committee, suggested: “I welcome what colleagues from the NHS have said today, but staff from overseas shouldn’t be experiencing racism.
“That’s important. Mandatory training aimed at keeping people safe, that’s important too. I’m not comfortable with a world where we accept those things don’t happen.
“The role of our committee should be how our targets can be met. We can keep a watching brief on this and call it back in, if we don’t feel there’s been enough progress.”
The committee noted considerable focus and attention has been given to addressing all the concerns raised in the CQC inspection report.
By Euan Duncan
Local Democracy Reporter
