Case study: Involving the public in transformation projects

Lesley Bennett, along with other local people, has played a major role in improving maternity services and in the development of the new maternity unit at Furness General Hospital.

Lesley’s newborn daughter Elleanor died as a result of poor care at the hospital in 2004, but new hospital leadership invited her to be part of the transformation of the trust’s maternity services.

She had already had some involvement with the trust, for example taking part in cleanliness audits in maternity, but her work on behalf of mothers and families went to another level, as the trust got to work on its new maternity unit.

She said, “For me it was always about turning things round for the better and about making sure lessons were learned and things couldn’t go back to what they’d been.”

Lesley was asked to be on the committee set up to implement the recommendations from the Kirkup report into the trust’s maternity services.

“I was asked if I’d work on the committee with doctors, nurses and directors, where we were re-writing policies and job descriptions for junior midwives, and shortlisting and interviewing midwives. I feel quite proud that I was one of the people that picked new midwives.”

With other families, Lesley was fully involved with the plans for the new maternity unit and the final design. One of her main suggestions was that the new bereavement unit should also be available to families whose children were terminally ill, so they could stay with their child. This suggestion was taken up.

Overall, she said “The new unit is better than we could have hoped for. We were not there to look good; they really listened to us and our opinions counted.”