Broomfield Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

The service provided information paper leaflets and standardised maternity packs that women and birthing people kept with them throughout their care journeys. A digital application had been implemented to improve accessibility to information for women, birthing people and their families signposting to support and service available locally. The service had started using a digital translation application to assist effective communication where English was not women, birthing people, and their families first spoken language. The consultant midwife led a birth options clinics, this was available to women, birthing people, and their families to discuss in advance birthing plans that explored any risk factors. The service provided equality and diversity training to assist staff and leaders to deliver inclusive care. The trust worked in partnership with a local volunteer service who offered multiple support events and sessions for fathers, women, and birthing people. Offering exercise classes, first aid, talking groups and mental health support. Leaders did not always organise and forward plan services to meet the needs of the local population, for example having to postpone IOL and transfer care to other MSE sites. Broomfield staff were committed to providing good care however effective systems and processes were not in place to support them fully in their roles. People could not always access timely care and support when they needed it. For example, women and birthing people where not always referred to the appropriate care provision. Staff did not always complete individualised care plans as documents did not always take into consideration ethnicity risk factors and vulnerabilities. The service did not always respond to women and birthing peoples feedback on care and were slow to implement improvements actions around service accessibility.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Person-centred Care during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Care provision, Integration and continuity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Providing Information during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Listening to and involving people during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

People we spoke to at time of assessment told us they had experienced smooth transition from community to hospital care. They had access to community midwife teams and a 24-hour antenatal and postnatal triage phone line. Some women and birthing people told us they did not always see the same midwife which often meant explaining medical history and pregnancy journeys multiple times. People told us that all staff introduced themselves and their clinical grade before commencing any assessment or treatment. Women and birthing people’s partners were encouraged to stay and support their loved ones during any procedures and delivery. People had access to their own maternity packs which held all antenatal notes, scans, and community midwife visit notes. Women and birthing people felt these packs were helpful and could access all the information they needed.

Some staff told us they felt women and birthing people could receive different standards of care across the MSE sites due to the lack of standardised processes and policies. Leaders had acknowledged they were still in the process of merging all sites policies and procedures to enable equitable care delivery across the trust. Staff told us they had dedicated bereavement rooms that were customised to be less clinical and more comfortable for women, birthing people and their families. Some staff we spoke to felt the reduction of their bereavement provision was going to impact on the women, birthing people and their families within the community. The service would soon have to signpost people to outside voluntary or charity run organisations for psychological support. Staff told us there had been a high demand for their provision and they were concerned what will happen to families when this service is stopped.

The service used several digital platforms to communicate with women, birthing people and their families. In 2023, the trust had produced and launched a virtual tour of their maternity facilities at Broomfield. The video walked women, birthing people, and their families through the birthing journey from admission to discharge and included subtitles for accessibility. The services public website also offered a self-referral option for women, birthing people to access, which required a short referral form being completed online. The service offered direct access to their maternity smoking cessation service via their website. On reviewing evidence received from the trust it was unclear how the service monitored ethnicity when receiving complaints and reviewing incident data. The Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) had identified specific action for the trust to take by March 2024 in relation to digital inclusion. They recommended the service ensured that data collection is carried out, to identify who is accessing face-to-face, telephone or video consultations, including by relevant protected characteristic and health inclusion groups. At the time of assessment, we did not see any evidence this had been implemented. The services PMRT review summary did not include details relating to ethnicity despite the individual PMRTs cases review report identifying maternal and fetal ethnicity. Therefore, this meant the service were not always monitoring any potential impact on care due to ethnicity. The service had mandatory equality and diversity training for all staff. At the time of the assessment, training compliance rates for doctors was 89% and midwifery staff was at 93%, this was below the trusts compliance target of 95%. The service had identified the need to develop a care pathway for those women and birthing people with a learning disability to enable good equity in access to antenatal care. This piece of work was underway at time of assessment.

We did not look at Equity in experiences and outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Planning for the future during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.