FOLLOWING ‘catastrophic’ maternity failings at a Shropshire hospital, Barnsley’s maternity services will receive a visit from senior health members to ensure standards are being met.
Chris Edwards, the accountable officer on Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) governing body board, along with the local maternity and neonatal NHS England team and chief nurse Jayne Sivakumar will pay a visit to the service at the end of this month.
Chris explained at last week’s Barnsley CCG governing body meeting that the visit will be precautionary and is solely to ensure necessary actions are being taken.
“Following the maternity report at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital, all units in South Yorkshire will be required to meet the immediate and essential actions as a result,” he said.
“Myself, the local maternity and neonatal NHS England team, and our chief nurse Jayne Sivakumar will be completing a visit at the end of this month.
“What we’ll do is we’ll work with the trust just to make sure they’re meeting all the actions which you’d expect and also work with them if there’s anything they need assistance with.
“The main things which will come out of those visits are information systems, staff culture, staff training and patient voice – which is very important.
“We’ll complete the visit and if anything comes out of it that will be discussed, but where there are any failings in Barnsley – our unit in Barnsley is currently rated as good by the CQC – so we don’t have any immediate concerns, however we will work with the trust just to make sure that it’s absolutely where it needs to be.”
