William Harvey Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff did their best to protect women’s privacy and dignity, although the limitations of the estate impacted on staff's ability to achieve this in a consistent way. They treated them as individuals and supported their preferences. People had choice in their care and were encouraged to maintain relationships with family and friends. Staff responded to people in a timely way. The service supported staff wellbeing.

Staff told us there was a culture of kindness and respect between the maternity and medical teams. We spoke with staff of all grades and disciplines and were consistently told they felt well supported by managers and senior leaders and felt confident to raise concerns.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff treated women and families with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Leaders had completed a quality improvement project focused on kindness.

Staff worked hard to protect the privacy and dignity of women. We observed staff routinely using privacy curtains and knocking on doors and waiting for a response before entering. Staff were discreet and respectful, and maintained confidentiality during meetings and clinical conversations. A chaperone service was available and clearly displayed with the service information.

Results from the Care Quality Commission survey for women who had given birth in February 2023 showed a response rate of 41%(233/547) and 90% of respondents felt their partner (or someone else close to them) were able to be involved in their care, and to stay with them as much as they wanted. This was better than the national average.

We received positive feedback from women and families about their experience of the service who described staff as “amazing”, “caring” and receiving ‘’outstanding care.’’

We spoke with 3 women who attended triage. They told us midwives were polite, caring and clearly explained care. Two of the women told us doctors did not always explain care as well as the midwives.

We saw many ‘thank you’ cards from women and their families, expressing gratitude to staff for the care they had received and personalised wall art displayed across the service.

In addition, staff told us they had successfully applied for a charitable donation to fund a baby gift for 30 mothers who would give birth over the festive season. The gift included a baby outfit, a ‘Christmas ball’ which included their baby's name and chocolates.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met individual needs and preferences. Staff took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Feedback was gathered through the Friends and Family Test, although this was trust wide and not specific to William Harvey Hospital. The most recent feedback was 98% positive and just 2% negative. Negative feedback included not feeling listened to, a long wait to be discharged and wait for medicines to take home from pharmacy.

During the inspection we reviewed the notes of 10 women and found staff had taken the time to know their individual circumstances and create an individual care plan. This was confirmed by the women and their families we spoke with too.

Maternity had developed a unique service called ‘Your Voice is Heard’ to capture the experience of all women who used their maternity service. The service had a patient experience team which included 2 full-time patient experience midwives and 2 maternity support workers. ’Your Voice is Heard’ was launched in May 2022 across all maternity sites and now included neonatal services.

The maternity unit had a patient experience team which included 2 full-time patient experience midwives and 2 maternity support workers. They had developed a unique service called ‘Your Voice is Heard’ to capture the experience of all women who has used the maternity service.

The team called all women 6 weeks following their birth and asked for detailed feedback about all aspects of their care. The team met quarterly to collate the data for themes and trends and identify improvements. All feedback was logged and shared. This included wider teams such as health visitors and paramedics. The most common positive feedback was related to the care provided by the midwife during labour and birth.

The teams shared and discussed results during key meetings such as governance meetings and improvements were agreed and how they could be actioned. For example, a family bathroom had been implemented on the postnatal ward, snack boxes were provided for partners and soft bins (that were quieter to use) had been introduced on ward areas The current patient response rate to ‘your Voice is Heard’ was 85%. The team were very proud of how the service had developed and the improvements which had followed, and they shared positive feedback with relevant staff and teams.

The service promoted women’s independence, so women knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Women and those important to them told us staff ensured they were fully informed of their rights. We were told consent was always sought before any procedure, and we saw this was documented in care notes. Women knew how to make a complaint although no-one we spoke with had any complaints about their care.

Staff told us they had routine discussions with all women and birthing people during pregnancy. They told us they discussed all options. For example, antenatal care, place and type of birth, pain relief in labour and baby feeding. This was evident from care notes that we reviewed, and it was clear from conversations that staff supported informed decisions and were advocates for women and birthing people.

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff acted in a way to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. The early pregnancy unit employed women’s health counsellors who were accredited to offer trauma-based support and provided memory boxes for women who had suffered an early pregnancy loss.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Without exception, all staff we spoke with were positive about working in this maternity unit and felt proud of the improvement work and what they had achieved. They told us the culture had changed from one of blame to learning and improvement and staff felt this was due to the new senior leadership team.

Teams worked together and learned together. All training, meetings, quality projects workshops and improvement streams were multidisciplinary. Teams had developed close multidisciplinary relationships, based on trust and mutual respect, which in turn improved the care of women, their family and their baby. Staff welcomed constructive challenge, and every member of the team had a voice to express themselves. There was a healthy culture within the service.

We spoke with 2 members of staff who were receiving support through occupational health. They told us their line manager had been supportive of their learning needs and developed reasonable adjustments to support them. Staff told us this was a psychologically safe place to work and develop professionally.

Improvement boards were available across all maternity areas. Staff of all grades could record suggestions for improvements on cards which were accessible in the corner of the board. Once the improvement was highlighted the manager went above and beyond to action the request. Recent example of suggestions that had been swiftly actioned included a water butt in the waiting area of triage, and an additional computer in the staff office.