Quality and equality in North West London Maternity services - Community engagement report
This report expands on a previous research project by Healthwatch Brent, which focused on maternity care and experiences at Northwick Park Hospital. Several key themes emerged both in terms of where the hospital is offering good care and potential areas for improvement. Some notable feedback was good communication and support from staff. On the other hand, patients raised concerns about the lack of organisation and long waiting times.
Adding to these findings, the most recent Care & Quality Commission (CQC) maternity survey has found that people's experiences of maternal care have deteriorated in the last 5 years. We were keen to explore whether the national trends were reflected in our local boroughs.
After receiving funding from Healthwatch England, we were able to expand the project across four more London Healthwatch sections: Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster. Patient data from Hillingdon and Hounslow is also included in the projects’ findings.
We set out to investigate whether standards of maternity services vary across the various boroughs, and to identify any factors that may put a woman at risk of receiving a lower standard of care. In total, we heard from 207 women across North West London.
Ultimately, we found that levels of care did not differ on the borough somebody came from or where they chose to give birth. Some of the positive areas highlighted by respondents included attention and support from staff; amount and quality of information shared; and their choices and wishes being respected.
However, we also discovered recommendations for improvement which could be addressed by all maternity services operating across the boroughs.
Women who had negative or mixed experience accounted for the minority of cases, but their concerns were still significant. Worse patient experiences often occurred when the pathway deviated from the “standard”. Participants who reported negative experiences include a non-birthing mother with experience of surrogacy, women who had to have unplanned c-sections, and women who went into labour out-of-hours.
“My wish was to give birth at the birth centre if at all possible. But the midwife didn’t listen to me when I told her I was in labour. Even when I had urges to push, she told me it was false urges."
Healthwatch Brent is keen to work closely with the Northwick Park Hospital Maternity Voices Partnership to ensure that we can highlight the views of patients accessing these services and ensure that pregnant women have a good experience of care. Our next step will be to collect feedback from women who have recently given birth or are using postnatal services. This will allow us to compare the experiences of those using antenatal and postnatal services.
We hope to strengthen our dialogue with local community organisations and stakeholders working to improve maternal care.
