THE maternity services at a Sussex hospital need immediate improvement, according to an official report.

Royal Sussex County Hospital "did not have enough staff to keep women and babies safe," a watchdog has found.

The maternity ward at the hospital, in Brighton, was rated as inadequate after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In their report, inspectors have said there was an insufficient number of staff across the service to keep mothers safe, but in midwifery it was impinging on the safety of babies too.

It said: "The service did not have enough midwifery staff to keep women and babies safe.

"All staff we spoke to before, during and after the inspection told us that low numbers of staff made them feel unsafe."

Inspectors also found that there was not always decent control of infection risk and that the staff "did not keep good care records."

The service did not manage safety incidents well and did not always learn lessons from them.

Nationally recognised tools for triaging women for treatment were not used by nursing and medical teams.

Issues of leadership were also among the areas highlighted, inspectors found that the leaders did not run the service adequately or support staff to develop their skills.

Staff were reported to not understand the service’s vision and values or how to apply them in their work.

Concerns for staff morale were raised as they did not feel "respected, supported and valued" as well as being unclear about their roles and accountabilities.

While staff were found to collect safety information, this was not always accurate.

Staff were found to understand how to protect women from abuse, manage medicines well, assess risks to women and act on them

They were focused on the needs of women receiving care, and the service on a whole engaged well with mothers and the community to plan and manage services.

In order for the hospital to comply with its legal obligations it has been given several actions to undertake to improve.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the site, must ensure staff complete mandatory training, that there are safe staffing levels at all times and that the maternity triage services are delivered in line with national guidance.

The trust said "urgent action" has been taken following the inspection earlier this year.

Inspectors carried out unannounced visits to three other of the trust's hospitals, each was found to require improvement.

Trust chairman, Alan McCarthy, said: “Our staff across UHSussex have not wavered in their dedication to good and compassionate patient care and we are enormously grateful for their commitment.

"We have moved quickly to make immediate improvements and will continue to drive forward the actions needed in the other areas the CQC has identified.”

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