Broomfield Hospital

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

Staff treated women, birthing people and families with compassion and kindness. They respected people’s privacy and dignity and took into account their individual needs. Staff were friendly, kind, caring and responded quickly and compassionately when called for assistance. Staff provided emotional support to women, birthing people and their families to minimise distress. They understood women and birthing people’s personal, cultural, and religious needs. Staff interacted in a supportive manner and provided reassurance if they were upset or worried. Staff supported and involved women, birthing people and families to understand their choices regarding their care and treatment. The recent 2023 CQC national maternity survey results showed 78% of patients were satisfied with the overall care they received at Broomfield maternity unit. Staff had won a recent national award including the midwife of the year, the neonatal nurse of the year, the nursery nurse of the year and the neonatal team of the year. The Broomfield bereavement team had also won a bereavement team of the year. The Board of Directors congratulated all the winners and commended the teams for the compassionate and high-quality care that they had provided.

This service scored 25 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

On the day of assessment women and birthing people and their families received good care. Staff introduced themselves, explained all assessments and treatments and obtained consent before proceeding. We saw kindness and compassion from a community midwifery team member that on their day off had accompanied a woman to the unit who was anxious and needed support. Some women and birthing people in the ECS waiting area told us they felt isolated and vulnerable wearing hospital gowns with no underwear on in a waiting area with other people. They had been asked to change into gowns and walk through corridors to the waiting area and described this as the “walk of shame”. They did not feel their dignity was being respected and felt uncomfortable with the way their care had been managed. Following concerns raised during assessment the service relocated this area to within the labour ward.

Staff told us that at times when the department was busy, they did not get the time they would want to spend to attend to women, birthing people, and their families. Staff felt they did their best to deliver good care but at times this could be impacted by the demand on the service. Staff told us that the bereavement rooms on labour ward were not soundproof, however they tried where possible not to locate birthing mothers near the bereavement rooms. Staff we spoke to were very passionate about delivering tailored psychological support for women, birthing people and their families after a baby bereavement. Staff felt they provided support that had made a positive impact on the recovery of women and birthing people after a baby loss and enabled families to have a single point of contact for support. However, the trust had plans to reduce this provision due to funding changes, and as of April 2024 bereavement speciality midwives were being redeployed. Staff had overwhelming concerns that this would leave women and birthing people and their families isolated and feeling vulnerable at a very sensitive time.

The MNVP team told us they had received feedback on care from women and birthing people and at times this could be negative which can impact and overshadow the good care that is being delivered. They told us there were pockets of poor cultures across the whole of the maternity services across MSE. MNVP linked in with the service through their social media support group. They felt the service had been responsive when they made referrals after concerns were raised on their social media groups and the service took immediate action to offer women, birthing people’s psychological support. They felt the trust was responsive to their concerns and took immediate action to reach out to those effected to offer support.

During the assessment we saw staff supporting all women and birthing people within the departments. Despite being very busy at times, staff made sure those receiving care had time to ask questions and gave support. We observed staff were caring and compassionate with patients and their relatives throughout our assessment. We observed a midwife supporting a woman attending clinic who was anxious, and they took time to explain what to expect and give assurances to reduce anxiety. Domestic support staff were friendly polite and caring when interacting with people within the department. They were passionate about ensuring women and birthing people and families had a clean welcoming environment as part of their birthing experience. We observed staff announcing their presence and knocking on room doors before entering to ensure privacy and dignity was maintained.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.