Oswestry Maternity Unit

Updated 16 August 2017

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is the main provider of district general hospital services for nearly half a million people in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and mid Wales. Ninety per cent of the area covered by the trust is rural.

Deprivation is higher than average for the area, but varies (180 out of 326 local authorities for Shropshire and 96 out of 326 local authorities for Telford and Wrekin); 6,755 children live in poverty in Shropshire and 8,615 in Telford and Wrekin. Life expectancy for both men and women is higher than the England average in Shropshire but lower in Telford and Wrekin.

The maternity unit is part of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital NHS Trust based within the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Gobowen; a low-risk unit offers labour, delivery and postnatal care in a small homely environment.

The midwifery-led unit (MLU) at Oswestry had 163 admissions with 62 deliveries between 01 November 2015 and 31 October 2016.

We inspected this unit as part of our unannounced midwifery service inspection.

Updated 16 August 2017

We inspected Oswestry Midwife Led Unit as part of a focused inspection of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in November and December 2016. We visited the unit unannounced on 1 November 2016.

We rated Oswestry Midwife Led Unit as good overall.

• Staff fully understood their professional responsibility to report incidents and concerns. No serious incidents had been reported between 01 November 2015 and 31 October 2016

• Patient records were stored securely and we saw they were up to date and legible.

• Care and treatment is delivered in line the current evidence based guidelines. Staff adhered to the trust Intrapartum Care on a MLU or Homebirth policy (June 2016), all trust wide policies and procedures were available to staff on the intranet.

• Effective systems of communication were established between the consultant led unit and the MLU, ensuring that effective care and treatment could be delivered.

• Women told us that they felt very well cared for and the staff were caring, thoughtful and compassionate

• A full review of the maternity service was ongoing, looking at different ways to improve the service with models of care being scoped by the trust

• Midwives were clear about their role and levels of accountability

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 16 August 2017

Staff understood their responsibility to report incidents and concerns. No serious incidents had been reported between 01 November 2015 and 31 October 2016

Patient records were stored securely and we saw they were up to date and legible. Care and treatment is delivered in line the current evidence based guidelines. Staff adhered to the trust Intrapartum Care on a MLU or Homebirth policy (June 2016), all trust wide policies and procedures were available to staff on the intranet.

Effective systems of communication were established between the consultant led unit and the MLU, ensuring that effective care and treatment could be delivered. Women told us that they felt very well cared for and the staff were caring, thoughtful and compassionate.

A full review of the maternity service was ongoing, looking at different ways to improve the service with models of care being scoped by the trust. Midwives were clear about their role and levels of accountability.

We found urine sample bottles were stored in public toilet, this did not reflect safe practice. When we brought this to the attention of the manager the bottles were removed immediately along with urine testing strips and disposable receivers.