MANAGERS at Basildon and Thurrock Hospital have played down the impact of a damning report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which has downgraded its maternity services to 'inadequate' after a snap inspection in June after staff within the unit raised the alarm.

The report highlights a culture within the hospital that means staff did not always feel able to raise issues or report incidents direct with the management.

That culture resulted in staff taking their fears direct to the CQC whose inspectors turned up unannounced at the hospital.

CQC had rated the maternity unit as 'requires improvement' when it last visited in February 2019 and returned due to concerns about six cases this year.

Standards at the maternity unit have crashed since a high in 2015 received an 'outstanding' rating from the CQC.

Last year the unit was [L]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-51156452 [L+]slammed by medical experts and the Essex coroner after its 'unfathomable mistakes' led to the death of a Grays woman in childbirth.

After June's inspection and a further downgrade, the 'requires improvement' statement has been downgraded further – but in its official response to the report – released at midnight – the hospital does not even mention that!

The statement simply said: "The Care Quality Commission has asked us to make improvements to maternity services at Basildon Hospital. It publishes its report on Wednesday (19 August) following an inspection of the service in June.

"While inspectors noted improvements had been made since their last visit, they have asked us to take action in a number of areas."

The statement also contained a message from Clare Panniker, Chief Executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust who was lauded last year as one of the health service's top then chief executives.

She said: "It is so important that mums feel safe when they come to us to have their babies, and that our staff feel supported to deliver the very best care. These are the two areas we've been focusing on and have taken urgent and significant action to address.

"We know that our services are safe to use, but I'm sorry that we didn't make improvements quickly enough.

"Our dedicated staff had already begun to make changes before the CQC visited us – and the report recognises that a raft of improvements had been put in place.

"We have a new leadership team, invested £1.8million in recruiting 29 more midwives and two additional consultants, opened three more delivery beds for high risk women, and created a triage service.

"We have also overhauled our processes and training to ensure that we offer women the very best care and support and that we are addressing the issues raised by the inspectors."

CQC's Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, described the services as needing 'significant improvements'.

He said: "While inspectors found some areas of good practice, they also found a number of significant improvements were needed when they visited maternity services at Basildon University Hospital recently.

"Doctors, midwives and other healthcare professionals did not always work well together, and the absence of an open culture meant that staff did not always feel able to raise issues or report incidents so that learning could be effectively shared to help embed improvements.

"All staff we met during our inspection were welcoming, friendly and helpful. However, it was evident, that they were concerned about the recent cluster of serious incidents and wanted to improve the care they provided to women and babies."