Thursday 30 November 2023
04/08/20
In line with our commitment to openness and transparency Salisbury Foundation Trust has commissioned an external review of our maternity service that will focus on the culture within the department and any impact this may have on team working and service delivery.
Salisbury Foundation Trust is committed to providing the very best care to all mothers and babies using our maternity services and is committed to supporting our staff to deliver the highest standards of care. Therefore when a number of concerns were raised through the standard management oversight process about the time taken to implement and embed learnings from incidents the Trust decided to commission this external review. This is a normal part of continuous quality improvement to support our teams to deliver outstanding services.
Please be reassured our quality indicators, national audit results and feedback from mothers through the national maternity survey shows we provide good outcomes for mothers and their babies. This review seeks to ensure we continue to do so and that if there are any signs of behaviour falling below our high standards, or missed learning opportunities, that these are addressed immediately. While the review is being carried out our maternity service will continue to operate as normal and receive additional management support from the Trust.
Whenever there has been/or could have been an unexpected or adverse outcome for a mother or baby these incidents are always reported and investigated as a standard procedure. Any learning is captured and results in the development of a detailed action plan. It is really important that all our teams learn from these events to improve our services, but at present we are not assured that this is embedded and we want to understand why this is the case.
If you have any queries relating to this please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on 01722 429044.
We have openly shared with the public and our regulators that we are undertaking this review and will communicate any key findings or service improvements that ensue.
Yours sincerely
Cara Charles-Barks, Chief Executive
Christine Blanshard, Medical Director
Judy Dyos, Director of Nursing
12 May 2020
Our staff at Salisbury District Hospital have long been well regarded for the quality of care and treatment they provide for our patients and for their innovation, commitment and professionalism. This has been recognised in a wide range of achievements and it is reflected in our award of NHS Foundation Trust status. This is afforded to hospitals that provide the highest standards of care.
