Stroud Maternity Hospital

⚠ Staff training compliance on how to recognise and report abuse was poor. Training records showed that only 63% of staff at Stroud Maternity Unit (SMU), had completed Level 3 safeguarding children training. This was not in-line with the trust's target of 90% and the intercollegiate guidelines. Safeguarding Level 3 training …

⚠ The service had enough suitable equipment, but they did not always check it or complete electrical safety checks to ensure equipment was safe and ready for use. We saw evidence that daily safety checks were completed for the month of November and up until our visit. All items were present …

⚠ The service did not always store and manage medicines safely. We saw medication that was out-of-date and still in use. This included Adrenaline that could be required in an emergency and had expired in November 2023, and 25 bottles of ultrasound gel that had expired in October 2023. There was …

⚠ Staff did not always complete and update risk assessments to remove, minimise or manage risks. We asked the trust to provide audit results for the previous 6 months and although 100% of assessments were completed at the onset of labour, average compliance for assessments at 36 weeks was only 35%. …

⚠ Leaders did not have an effective process to monitor policies and review dates and the ownership, oversight and management of guidelines and procedures at SMU was unclear. We noted that some policies and algorithms were out-of-date which meant they might not reflect evidence-based practice and national guidance.

⚠ Leaders did not operate effective governance processes, throughout the service and with partner organisations. Maternity services had an audit plan for 2023-2024 but we noted that 7 were overdue at the time of our visit and we could not see any audit or evaluation of services provided at SMU. Equally, …