Minor reports risk undermining public confidence in Stroud Maternity Unit

Stroud Maternity Unit (Image: Newsquest)

I am writing to express my concerns about the adequacy of the recent stand-alone inspection of the Stroud maternity ward.

In times of staff shortages, examining maternity units in isolation from the wider trust system and staffing model within which they operate does not seem justified.

The reason our much admired postpartum beds are temporarily closed is precisely because SMU has fluid staffing across the hospital to ensure safe care at all times. Naming Mr Stroud fails to recognize the problems of employees across the trust.

The CQC report admitted it did not have the power to consider “how caring, effective and responsive SMU’s services are”. I thought these were exactly her three criteria that were most important for a woman giving birth.

“The midwives at Stroud Maternity Unit were amazing. They made me feel so comfortable and supported me throughout the birth in the birthing pool. It was a really empowering experience. ” – a recent testimony shared by an SMU mother.

We must be careful about sensationalizing the minor issues identified in this test, which do not reflect the very strong and sensitive care that women consistently report receiving at SMU. It doesn’t have to be. Mothers-to-be considering whether the Stroud Midwifery Center experience is right for them can meet the midwives who work there and receive weekly Instagram features about healthy babies and happy, safe families. please look.

You don’t have to worry about the details of household issues or expiration dates.

The parts of the report about the connections that midwives build with the broader community are not supported by empirical evidence. The report says they need to do more. This is the unit that prompted the Alliance of Friends to reallocate funding to diversify its prenatal and postnatal programs.

It is a unit where I and other volunteers are welcomed and where absolute transparency of practice is shared. If the description of this aspect of community support is fundamentally at odds with Stroud’s lived experience, then the report must be misleading about obvious deficiencies in other areas. I can’t stay.

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The above scenario regarding ambulance transport is a national issue that the entire NHS is grappling with. As always, it appears that midwives were doing their best to advocate for the needs of their patients in these difficult circumstances.

We, the campaigners, have been assured time and time again that the midwifery unit will remain open, and Mr Stroud is continually seeking a restatement of that commitment at the top of NHS trusts.

Our pressure groups have assured us that the unit will not be closed down precisely because of the strong public sentiment surrounding it.

As long as this unit remains a place of choice that holds people’s imagination as a “second home”, the unit will not be closed. This lackluster report risks undermining public trust by focusing on unimportant details rather than assessing what truly makes women feel safe and supported during childbirth.

We at Stroud Maternity Matters have been asked to delay public attention to bed closures in postnatal wards in order to free up foot traffic so that the wards are not at risk of complete closure. An unhelpful report seeks to undermine public confidence in postnatal ward bed closures. Mr. Stroud always knew that assets were valuable. The message from top management has always been, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Isn’t there perhaps something dishonest going on when the very mechanisms that are supposed to help improve the workplace actually hurt the future of the workplace? One need only look at Ofsted to see that we should be skeptical about top-down rating structures.

Restructure your report to include a list of positives that everyone would choose for their birth: “Worked well together,” “Lessons learned,” “Continued.” “A commitment to improvement”, “people can access services when they need them, and people don’t have to wait long for treatment when they don’t have access to services when they need them”. ” Considering the conditions in which midwives have to work, these seem like big wins.

We encourage you to read this report comprehensively to identify the many positives about Stroud’s dedicated staff and female-centred care model. Reductive analyzes that take issues out of their broader context can have a negative impact on our sector and unnecessarily alarm the pregnant community.

kate buckingham

Chairman of Stroud Maternity Matters