Salisbury District Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

The service listened to women and their families. They treated women with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

This service scored 30 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Women and families, we spoke to told us they were treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. The friends and family survey showed a 91% positive response from women, with the majority of women stating they had either very good or good care. Women mostly felt listened to and respected. The service introduced antenatal beds onto the postnatal ward in March 2024 to improve women’s antenatal experiences and to improve the flow on labour ward. Antenatal and postnatal women admitted onto the ward were included in a survey to establish women’s experiences. The survey showed, overall women were happy about their maternity experiences. The service completed an annual analysis of the birth reflection service. The analysis took information between 2023 to 2024 and showed most women were satisfied with the care they received. However, there were some ongoing negative themes. For example, women felt they were not always listened to, the birth outcome was not always as expected, women found the induction process long and painful, and there was limited accessibility to the birthing centre. Following on from the analysis review the service put in place an action place to improve services. The birth reflections service worked closely with the maternity mental health team for support and expertise around birth trauma. The service had a psychological and wellbeing midwife who oversaw the birth reflections service with the family experience midwife and was supported by a perinatal mental health specialist midwife. The team worked together to support women who had experienced previous birth traumas. The bereavement midwife engaged with national and local bereavement charities to support services for women and their families.

Staff told us there was a culture of kindness and respect between the maternity and medical teams. Staff felt they were well supported by managers and senior leaders and felt confident to raise concerns.

The maternity service worked with the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) to contribute to decisions about care in maternity services. The MNVP had regular engagement with leaders to make a difference to services provided to women who accessed the service. The MNVP had regular meetings with the trust and easy access to the senior leadership team to escalate any concerns promptly. The MNVP shared that the service was keen to work with them and listened and took on board feedback. For example, the service was working with the MNVP to provide information for women on inductions of labour.

Staff worked hard to protect the privacy and dignity of women. We observed midwives asking women if they could come in from behind the curtain to complete checks. The service had a purposed built and designed bereavement suite to help women and birthing people and their families. The suite provided an area of privacy away from the maternity area. Staff were aware of the issues around privacy within the DAU and they tried to maintain confidentiality and privacy by ensuring handover and conversations in regard to women were carried out in a private assessment room within the area. However, we observed midwifes within the day assessment unit (DAU) found it difficult to always maintain privacy. Women waited opposite the midwife station where it was easy to overhear conversations and telephone calls. There were three bays close to the waiting area which were separated by curtains only. Women in bays were assessed and treated and conversations at times could be overheard.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. There is no score yet for this quality statement for Caring.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. There is no score yet for this quality statement for Caring.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. There is no score yet for this quality statement for Caring.

The last NHS Staff Survey was produced in 2023 and incorporated the whole of the women’s division rather than just the maternity service. Therefore, we were unable to identify survey outcomes for maternity teams. During our inspection staff told us there had been a significant change in culture within the maternity department. The service had co-produced a behaviour charter for all maternity and medical staff which detailed the positive behaviour expected within the maternity workplace.

The service was aligned to the NHS peoples promise and staff engagement and morale. The NHS Peoples Promise aimed to improve the experiences of staff working within the NHS. The service looked at 7 areas which included, staff’s wellbeing, support and flexible working. The perinatal leadership team had recently developed a local staff survey as part of their ongoing work culture. The survey was currently ongoing and due to finish at the end of October 2024. The service provided an active bystander training into mandatory PROMT training to support positive culture within the maternity service. Staff had access to wellbeing folders with information and signposting around physical health, psychological health and menopause. A survey around the experience of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for maternity staff has been designed. The survey aims to identify areas for improvement and to plan and inform ongoing work in this area.