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MATERNITY services at York and Scarborough NHS Trust are “so unsafe as to be putting women and babies’ lives in danger every day”, according to a whistleblower.
Staff shortages have meant that community midwives have been working 24 hour shifts and women in labour have been diverted to other hospitals due to lack of capacity.
A review in April found a shortfall of 21 midwives across the York and Scarborough units, when measured against the ‘Birthrate Plus’ recommendations, a way of measuring safe staffing for maternity services.
The trust is cooperating with the Care Quality Commission in an investigation after the whistleblower raised concerns, the hospital trust’s board papers show.
The papers also state the the number of serious incidents across all of the trust’s services “associated with the delivery of fundematal care” is “of concern".
The concerned staff member wrote: “When fully staffed, the labour ward has four midwives for 14 beds, beds that are often filled with increasingly high-risk patients who require one-to-one care. Additionally, the unit is never fully staffed anymore, or even close.”
Community midwives are expected to attend the unit on-call overnight to help, the whistleblower said.
They added: “This often manifests in community midwives working a day shift 8.30am-4.30pm, going to the unit to help with staffing at 4.30pm, then not leaving until 7am the following day.
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