'Bullying still alive and well' in Walsall Manor midwifery service
Hospital chiefs were threatened with enforcement action by the health regulator over staffing levels and a ‘bullying culture’ within a maternity service, it has emerged.
Troubled Walsall Healthcare Trust, which runs the Manor Hospital, was given the warning in June by the Care Quality Commission, board papers reveal.
It is a further blow for the trust which was placed in special measures in January last year for a ‘heavy handed’ approach, described as bordering on bullying, by senior management.
The trust papers say: “Since the last board meeting we have received a warning of potential enforcement action from the CQC with regards to their concerns about staffing and culture in maternity.”
However, health chiefs said that the threat of action had since been withdrawn after the trust submitted an improvement plan which included asking both the Royal College of Obstetricians and the Royal College of Midwives to carry out independent reviews of the service.
David Drew, a former clinical director at the Manor who claims he was sacked after raising concerns over standards of care, and later wrote a book describing the trust’s ‘bullying culture’ and the effect of staffing cuts, tweeted: ‘Bullying still alive and well I see.’
The regulator told trust bosses 18 months ago it had received comments from whistleblowers about behaviour by senior management that ‘alluded to a bullying culture’, particularly in the midwifery department.
They included claims that patient safety was compromised in the hospital’s maternity ward, where concerns were raised over ‘multiple issues with staffing, delivery of care and treatment’.
In June last year, a review by the Royal College of Paediatrics highlighted concerns over staff shortages in the neonatal unit.
The midwifery-led unit at the Manor is currently shut for up to eight weeks due to staff shortages, with expectant mothers instead being transferred to the hospital’s main delivery suite.
It followed a re-inspection by the CQC.
On the back of that a birthing cap had already been imposed at the Moat Road site limiting deliveries to 4,200 a year from nearly 5,000. Rachel Overfield, director of nursing at the trust, said: “The trust has been in regular contact with the CQC who have now formally advised us that no immediate enforcement action will be taken.
“The CQC took this decision after considering our robust action plan and following the correction of a number of factual inaccuracies.”
