KGH maternity care scores highly

Families gave the hospital’s maternity care the thumbs up in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Maternity Survey 2018, published yesterday (January 29).

The survey involved 102 women who gave birth at KGH during February 2018 filling in a questionnaire on their experience of their maternity care.

KGH’s head of midwifery Mara Tonks said: “We are very pleased that once again our mums and families have rated the care they receive from us highly.

“It reflects the effort our dedicated, friendly and highly skilled maternity team put into their jobs and how much that is appreciated.”

The survey’s 19 questions are split into three overall categories and scored out of maximum score of 10.

KGH scored 8.9 out of 10 for labour and birth, 8.8 out of 10 for staff and 7.5 out of 10 for care in hospital after birth.

The hospital says this is a very similar score to last year’s survey and means the trust remains ‘about the same’ as other English trusts in all 19 questions scored.

Women rated the hospital very highly – any score that got more than nine out of 10 – in five of the 19 categories.

They were:

Having skin to skin contact with the baby shortly after birth - 9.0 out of 10

Partners being involved as much as they wanted - 9.8 out of 10

Being spoken to during labour and birth, in a way they could understand - 9.6 out of 10

Being treated with respect and dignity during labour and birth - 9.2 out of 10

Having confidence and trust in the staff caring for them during labour and birth - 9.0 out of 10

The lowest score was 5.7 out 10 for delays in discharge. KGH says while this was a low score it was still rated about the same as other trusts.

Mara said: “This relates to the availability of our paediatricians in undertaking a newborn examination of babies prior to their discharge.

“To help address this we are training more midwives to gain this competency in order to reduce delays.”