Trust Board Febuary 2010 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

SWBTB (2/10) 045 (a)
strategy the SMOC group took into account national policy and guidance and the work of the West
Midlands Maternity and Newborn Darzi Group (2008). The Strategy’s overarching vision is that:
‘ Women and their partners in Sandwell and HoBtPCT will have easy access to supportive, high
quality and safe maternity, neonatal and newborn services, designed around their individual
needs and those of their babies and infants.
Health and well being will be promoted and delivered through coordinated programmes of care
which will include prevention and early intervention to assess health inequalities and support self
care.’ (Ibid, page 4).
In relation to intra-partum care the proposed service model includes an individual initial risk assessment
to identify the most appropriate antenatal care pathway and a subsequent delivery risk assessment to
identify, from a range of birthing locations, the most appropriate taking account of individual clinical risks
and choice. The proposed birth locations include home birth, a birth centre in a community setting, a colocated
birth centre (adjacent to an obstetric delivery suite) and an obstetric led delivery suite in an
Acute Hospital setting.
The long term plan for the Trust’s maternity service therefore envisages a model of community based
ante- and post-natal care, with a centralised delivery and specialist care facility in the new Acute
Hospital in Smethwick which is due to open in 2015/16. The delivery facility will be clearly split between
a higher risk obstetric-led unit and a low risk midwifery-led unit (co-located birth centre).
2.2 Compliance With Trust Priorities
Over the past 2-3 years there has been an intense focus on developing and improving the Trust’s
maternity service with the aim of ensuring the quality and safety of the service, in response to national
guidance and to local concerns. These efforts have produced good results with clear improvements in
the Trust’s maternity services but there remain continuing concerns about medium term sustainability,
particularly in respect of the Consultant led component of the service. These concerns along with the
longer term vision for maternity services within the local health economy are recognised within the
Trust’s corporate objectives.
Of particular relevance is the Trust’s strategic objective to deliver:
‘ High Quality Care - We will provide the highest quality clinical care. Our clinical outcomes will be
amongst the best of Trusts of our size and type. Patients and frontline staff will be fully engaged in
improving our services.’ (SWBH, Annual Plan 2009 -10, March 2009, page 10)
During 2009/10 there were two annual objectives linked to this strategic objective and relating directly to
maternity services. These were to:
‘ Deliver significant improvements in the Trust’s maternity services’ and
‘Achieve NHSLA standards Level 2 (general) by December 2009 and new Level 1 (maternity) by
March 2010.’ (Ibid, page 13).
In pursuing these objectives the Trust has established an internal Maternity Action Team chaired by the
Chief Executive and a Maternity Taskforce, with members from key external stakeholders and led by the
Trust Chair. In order to bring together the various strands of existing work and give a framework for
further development, an Integrated Maternity Development Plan was produced which was approved by
the Trust Board (and the two local Primary Care Trust Boards) in the second half of 2008.
2.3 Current Maternity Service Provision
In relation to intra-partum and acute Consultant led elements of the Trust’s maternity services the
current service model in summary has:
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