Broomfield Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

During our assessment women, birthing people and families were treated with compassion and kindness. They felt staff responded to their needs and were supportive and reassuring. Women and birthing people told us they felt staff did their best to care for everyone within the unit despite at times appearing short staffed. Call bells were always answered, and care was delivered sensitively and compassionately by midwifery staff. However, at times due to capacity issues within the department some staff felt they did not have the time they wanted to deliver the care they felt was necessary. At the time of this assessment there was 11 open formal complaints about maternity services at Broomfield Hospital

This service scored 50 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

During our assessment women and birthing people and their families told us they felt supported and well cared for by the midwifery staff. They felt staff were attentive to their needs and all staff were helpful. Improvements had been made to the Elective Cesarean section (ECS) waiting room and people felt this gave more privacy and dignity during their procedure. However, concerns were raised over the lack of understanding by some doctors regarding mental health during pregnancy and need to take a more compassionate approach and to listen to women and birthing people’s concerns.

Staff told us their focus was on delivering kind and compassionate, good care to all who attended the unit. However, on postnatal ward staff told us that at times they felt under pressure to discharge women, birthing people, and their baby’s before they were ready to go home. Staff felt they did not always get the time to deliver care they felt was of a good standard due to capacity pressures. Some staff told us doctors did not always introduce themselves to women and birthing people and might start a procedure or intervention without explaining beforehand what was happening.

During our assessment we saw staff supporting women, birthing people, and babies within the department. Midwifery staff always introduced themselves and included family members in interactions. Midwifery staff took a holistic view with care and treated each woman and birthing person as an individual. We observed midwifery staff making sure women and birthing people expressed their emotional needs and supported them at times of discomfort or anxiety. During assessment we did not always see affective communication between obstetric and midwifery staff. Busy departments and capacity issues at times created a pressurised atmosphere which did not foster clear and effective communication between staffing teams.

Some women and birthing people told us they felt obstetric doctors had not listened to their concerns and anxieties when making decisions about their care. They felt their concerns were often dismissed and their wellbeing and mental health not supported which had made their final weeks of pregnancy stressful and frustrating. Some women and birthing people felt at times there was an unconscious bias from obstetric doctors regarding mental health conditions.

Staff told us due to departments being busy at times women and birthing people can receive limited breast-feeding support prior to discharge. Some staff felt at times the lack of tailored support for feeding would lead to women, birthing people and their babies returning to the unit as there was not always timely community support post discharge.

There were limited processes for supporting women and birthing people who had additional needs. The trust had policies in place regarding supporting people whilst using maternity services, however there was limited resources and guidance to maternity staff for what additional support and adjustments they had available to them. Polices gave suggestions for communication resources but there was no direct access to these for maternity staff.

Some women and birthing people told us they felt midwifery staff listened and empowered them to make decisions throughout their pregnancy journey. However, some women attending the maternity unit for care felt there was a lack of clear communication during labouring processes, and this had impacted on their ability to make informed choices.

Staff told us women, birthing people and their families receive all the same antenatal information and they have MSE maternity videos on the main public trust website. Some staff told us at times religious beliefs and birthing plans were not being respectfully discussed during antenatal care, which effected independent choice for women and birthing people.

The service regularly engaged with local maternity focus groups to discuss maternity services at Broomfield. These meetings gave the opportunity for partners to share women and birthing peoples voice to influence and shape maternity services for the population Broomfield Hospital serves. However, the service had very limited in-house engagement with women, birthing people and their families and was reliant on their external partners to facilitate conversations and feedback.

People told us they felt midwifery and support staff were attentive to their needs. They told us during their time on the unit midwifery and support staff made them feel comfortable and safe, call bells were answered promptly, and assistance was given as soon as they were able. People told us they felt midwifery staff were doing their best to care for everyone. However, some women and birthing people told us at times they would have to wait for pain relief medication to be administered due to busy departments and pressures on staff.

Some staff told us there was very little dedicated breast-feeding support being given to women and birthing people. Due to capacity pressures within postnatal ward establishing feeding prior to discharge was difficult which they felt would often lead to babies being readmitted to the unit with weight decreases and jaundice. This is further impacted they felt by the limited breast-feeding support offered in the community as community midwives do not have the capacity to accommodate all discharges.

During this assessment the service was not responding to induction of labour (IOL) needs in line with national guidelines as there was prolonged processes of induction. During these processes, women and birthing people were not fully informed as to their options of care when the first stage of induction was not successful. The service did not demonstrate how all the labour options for women and birthing people were explored and discussed along with the individual needs and risk factors. We saw women and birthing people’s IOL processes unnecessarily prolonged causing exhaustion and further complications during labour.

Staff told us they have no dedicated space to take their breaks and often must stand if the staff room is busy. Staff told us they do not always receive support from leaders after an incident. There was no set structure for debrief and it was left up to them to reach out for emotional support. Leaders told us there are options for support, but this would rely on staff seeking that assistance for themselves.

There were not clear structures to provide all staff with adequate timely support following an incident. There was limited oversight from leaders as to which staff may have been involved in an incident and what emotional support or debrief might be required. This lack of wellbeing support also hindered the opportunity to access any immediate learning objectives or improvement measures being put in place. A yearly staff appraisal system was in place, but this offered little opportunity to deliver real time support to maternity staff. The service at time of this assessment was not compliant with yearly staff appraisal rates.