\n The number of caesarean sections (C-sections) has \u201cshot up\u201d, said chief executive\u00a0Matthew Trainer, with the annual figure rising by a third in the past four years.\n<\/p>\n
\n In an exclusive interview, the boss of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) – which runs Queen’s –\u00a0said he expects the maternity unit will fail to achieve a ‘good’ rating when its next inspection report is published.\n<\/p>\n
\n Staff are\u00a0dealing with increasing numbers of mothers with health problems and language barriers, he said \u2013 and while Britain\u2019s national birth rate is expected to fall in the coming years, east London\u2019s is predicted to continue rising.\n<\/p>\n
\n The maternity unit was inspected last year by health watchdog\u00a0Care Quality Commission (CQC), but the results have not yet been published.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe will probably get another inspection this year,\u201d said Mr Trainer. \u201cI don\u2019t think the overall rating will be any better.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The maternity unit is currently rated ‘requires improvement’, based on a 2021 inspection.\n<\/p>\n
\n Asked why he did not expect the rating to improve, he pointed to \u201cthe demand the service is under\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, he stressed that the unit is safe, despite\u00a0CQC saying its safety ‘requires improvement’.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s no data that suggests the outcomes we get are any worse than anywhere else in the country,\u201d said Mr Trainer.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got more midwives working here than the trust has ever had \u2013 and by quite a size, actually.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The vacancy rate in the maternity unit has dropped from around 20 per cent\u00a0to 7pc.\n<\/p>\n
\n But with around 7,000 babies delivered per year, he said, the triage service is still \u201cunder really, really high pressure and demand\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve put extra medical staffing into that overnight recently and extra nursing staff, to try to make sure we\u2019re managing the risks there as well as possible,\u201d said Mr Trainer.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut I think, hand on heart, I\u2019d expect after the next inspection it would still be requires improvement and I think there\u2019s still more for us to do.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n In addition to an under-pressure triage service, said Mr Trainer, the Labour Ward itself is sometimes \u201cabsolutely packed out\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Three inquests have been opened at East London Coroner’s Court since late last year into the deaths of babies born at Queen’s Hospital, amid concerns over the treatment provided (Image: Charlotte Anderson) Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, said Kathryn Tompsett, clinical group director for women\u2019s and children\u2019s services, demand for C-sections rose from 2,270 in 2020 to 3,005 in 2024 \u2013 a 33pc\u00a0increase.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSome of it is increased medical complexity,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, people being less healthy when they come into a pregnancy, which means they\u2019re more likely to need an intervention.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Analysis of the worst outcomes \u2013 stillbirths, babies having to be admitted to the neonatal unit after delivery, mothers suffering haemorrhages, and so on \u2013 have found a link to poverty or deprivation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve found that there are some particular postcodes in the Ilford area where we\u2019ve seen little clusters of women who have babies who have slightly poorer outcomes,\u201d said Mrs Tompsett.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cObviously, deprivation is a factor in this,\u201d said Mr Trainer. \u201cThe very best outcomes tend to be for women who\u2019ve got no pre-existing health conditions. The more you move away from that, the higher the degree of risk you carry.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Around one in seven mothers seen by the unit now has diabetes, said Mrs Tompsett \u2013 the highest proportion in the unit\u2019s history.\n<\/p>\n
\n That is linked in part to the area\u2019s large south Asian population, said Mr Trainer, which disproportionately suffers diabetes.\n<\/p>\n
\n When emergency caesareans have to be carried out, he said, planned ones have to be put off \u2013 a factor which can impact on the unit\u2019s CQC safety rating.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf the trend we\u2019ve seen in the last few years with regard to C-sections continues to increase in line with increased birth rate, at some point we\u2019ll need another dedicated theatre at Queen\u2019s in the next couple of years,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n BHRUT has started diverting resources to the deprived areas linked to poor outcomes, with positive results starting to show, said Mrs Tompsett.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cA safe maternity service is one where you\u2019ve taken all reasonable actions to minimise the risk,\u201d said Mr Trainer.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEven a service that the CQC might rate as good or outstanding, you would still expect there to be incidents in the course of a year. You would still expect there to be poor outcomes for a sad minority of cases.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe question is, has the service done enough to try to prevent that happening wherever possible?\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we had the CQC back in again at some point in the next couple of months.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf it was \u2018requires improvement\u2019 again, I would hope it was towards the top end of that, because we\u2019ve made real progress.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf it was anything below requires improvement, I would be really, really disappointed \u2013 and from what we know about the service, it would be really surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of caesarean sections (C-sections) has \u201cshot up\u201d, said chief executive\u00a0Matthew Trainer, with the annual figure rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-31369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}