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Maternity services at Houghton General Hospital in Banbury have been branded “terrible” by the women who relied on them.
In 2017 it was downgraded to ‘midwife-led’ care and a CQC report has now revealed that both mothers and babies are at risk of harm at the Oxfordshire facility.
The three women told ITV Meridian they were worried about treatment at the Banbury site, despite assurances from Oxford University Hospital that it was safe.
Louise Truby, who lost her son Roma on January 19, 2023, said her experience at Houghton was “horrifying, dangerous and inconsiderate”.
When Roma stopped moving, Louise said after first reporting it to staff, she had to wait six hours to be seen.
“They took me for a scan,” she told ITV Meridian.
“Then the woman in charge of the scan told me that he had clearly passed away.
“But when she said that, there was no sympathy whatsoever. It was just… ‘Your baby died.’
Louise and her partner Conor were told they would have to give birth 40 miles away at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford as it would not be possible to give birth at Houghton Hospital due to a shortage of obstetricians.
They were told to drive themselves and were upset.
Connor told ITV Meridian: “When you get to a critical moment, like when a baby dies, you just have to drive the two parents to completely different hospitals knowing that their children have just died. You never know what’s going to happen.” During.
“From the front door of that hospital to the front door of another hospital, anything can happen.”
CQC inspectors visited the site in October 2023 and rated the service as ‘requires improvement’. It is the first time the department has been assessed since it was downgraded to a midwife-led unit in 2017.
They found the service had poor governance and inefficient systems and processes that could put women and their babies at risk.
Inspectors found in their report that a lack of oversight meant that leaders were unable to consistently identify problems or make improvements when they were found, and that safety equipment was not always checked regularly. He said he meant it.
Leah Ridley is another mother who says she was disappointed when she visited Houghton after she started wetting herself near the end of her pregnancy.
She said she was not given a test and was told multiple times that she had just wet the bed before being sent home.
Three weeks later, when Leah was induced at John Radcliffe Hospital, they were unable to break her water because her water had not broken.
She then discovered that she had been leaking amniotic fluid and that her newborn baby was in such poor condition that she required daily antibiotics. This required her to travel to and from Oxford for over a week.
In an interview on ITV Meridian she said: It’s just difficult.
“You just went through that tough time and then you’re told you need to come back, you need to come back. It just hurt and I think it just added to the trauma.”
Oxford University Hospitals declined to comment on the specific issues raised, but in response to the CQC report Milica Redfern, director of midwifery at Oxford University Hospitals, said: To improve our services, we will work with staff, women and maternity professionals to make any suggested improvements.
“As inspectors discovered when they visited, we have a fantastic team at the Houghton midwife-led unit.
“Inspectors found that ‘the service worked well with women, people in childbirth and the community to plan and manage the service’, that there were sufficient staff and that women and people in childbirth were kept safe. said.”
Professor Meghana Pandit, Chief Executive of Oxford University Hospitals, said: “As a learning organization, we will continue to improve our services along the lines highlighted in the report, and I feel sorry for our staff who are already working hard to improve.”
“We want to be clear that our commitment to Houghton General Hospital is unwavering, and while this new rating is a setback, we are committed to our local hospital, the services it provides, and the excellent We are very proud of our staff.
“Our plans for Houghton Hospital as a modern regional general hospital providing urgent community care for people in Banbury and the surrounding area are set out in our clinical strategy.
“In recent years, we have increased capacity at the Brody Cancer Center, increased our diagnostic capabilities in the region with the installation of a new CT scanner and new blood testing services, and expanded our diagnostic capabilities through obstetrician-led clinics and obstetrician-led clinics. We have increased the input of specialists into outpatient clinics such as: Increased capacity for surgical and day surgery procedures;
“All of these improvements are aimed at improving access to local care for people in Bunbury and the surrounding area.”
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