West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust celebrates results of Care Quality Commission’s maternity survey

Staff at a hospital trust are over the moon after improvements in maternity care were noted in a recent survey.

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) is celebrating after being named as one of the East of England’s top five trusts in the 2023 NHS Maternity Services Survey, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The survey collected patient feedback on the quality of maternity services – antenatal care, labour and birth and postnatal care.

One highlight was that the standard of care did not decrease in a single sector for the second year in a row, with some seeing significant increases, according to the report.

Karen Newbury, director of midwifery for WSFT, said: “The results from this year’s survey represent a significant amount of work that has taken place to improve the service we provide.

“Everyone involved in maternity services at the trust have worked extremely hard to provide higher quality and safer care for mothers and birthing people, babies, and families. I would like to thank them all for their enormous contribution.”

Sectors which gained high marks included access to midwives for mothers after having given birth, the ability for mothers to ask questions about labour and birth after the baby was born and relevant feeding information.

Two sectors, ensuring patients can go home as soon as they want after birth and cleanliness of the hospital room or ward, saw significant increases compared to last year, the report said.

Ms Newbury said a focus on developing antenatal and postnatal care was made after last year’s results.

However, this year’s report noted areas for improvement regarding how long partners were able to stay at the mother’s side, clinicians’ awareness of a patient’s medical history and pain management.

WSFT launched its own survey after getting its results from the CQC and will trial a new initiative to allow an adult support partner to be bedside on the first night to support the mother.

The team will produce a plan of action to work on areas for improvement.

Ms Newbury said: “We know that there is always more we need to do to improve our care, and this annual survey highlights to us areas that we are already focusing on and areas that we need to return our focus to.”