Basildon University Hospital

⚠ Mandatory and safeguarding training rates did not consistently meet trust target compliance levels across services, with inconsistencies in monitoring and ensuring all necessary staff had the appropriate level of adult safeguarding training, particularly in maternity services.

⚠ Referral to treatment times were below the England average in some specialities, particularly for patients awaiting initial treatment for cancers and those waiting over 52 weeks for appointments, meaning patients could not always access initial assessment and treatment in a timely manner.

⚠ The referral to treatment (RTT) times were not meeting national standards or the England average in some areas, and patients could not always access initial assessment and treatment in a timely manner, despite plans being in place.

⚠ The service did not assess, monitor or manage women with high risk pregnancies in the correct environment with the support of medical staff, leading to delays in transferring women to the obstetric led unit, and high risk women in labour were not always correctly identified and regularly reviewed by appropriate …

⚠ Medication, including medical gases, was not always stored in line with trust policy and national guidance or best practice.

⚠ Patient records were inconsistently completed, including records of foetal movement, recording of the date and time of observations, and signatures of staff undertaking reviews.

⚠ Incidents were not always graded correctly, with some graded as no or low harm which did not reflect the actual level of harm to the woman or baby.

⚠ The Head of Midwifery and Clinical Lead did not have direct access to the board to present to them regularly, which was not in line with recommendations from ‘Spotlight on Maternity’ 2016.

⚠ The service did not have robust systems to identify risks, plan to eliminate or reduce them, and cope with both the expected and unexpected, including a lack of auditing compliance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) surgical safety checklist.

⚠ Referral to treatment times were not meeting national standards or the England average, meaning patients could not always access initial assessments and treatment in a timely manner, with some patients waiting for more than 52 weeks for appointments.