An Essex hospital’s maternity services facing staff shortages led to a downgrade to ‘requires improvement’ largely because of a workforce set to retire at the same time.
An extra 30 midwives are being recruited from Italy and Portugal to work at Ipswich, Colchester and Clacton hospitals in light of a Care Quality Commission inspection that found sustained periods of reduced staffing.
The shortage of staff is not related to Brexit, a spokesperson for the hospital added, but rather to do with the age profile of current midwives – many of whom are reaching retirement age at the same time.
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Four workstreams will address organisational development, safety culture, governance, and staffing and workforce.
The Programme Board had been formed to address continuous improvement in maternity services.
A report from ESNEFT to the Essex Health Overview Policy and Scrutiny Committee meeting on September 2 said: “The Trust was aware of the challenges within maternity services prior to the CQC inspection and was taking steps to improve the leadership and governance structures to support them.