Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received as follows:

• Councillor Colwill, substituted by Councillor Kansagra
• Councillor Aden, substituted by Councillor Kabir
• Co-opted member Mr Alloysius Frederick

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

Personal interests were declared as follows:

• Councillor Sheth – lead governor for Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• Councillor Sangani – employed by the NHS
• Councillor Ethapemi – spouse employed by the NHS
• Councillor Shahzad – spouse employed by the NHS

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

There were no deputations received.

The purpose of the report is to share the details of the improvement plan for maternity care with reference to information requested on behalf of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

The report explains the external reviews that provide the recommendations and inform some of the improvement actions, governance, and delivery of improvement journey, challenges and next steps.

The Chair welcomed health partners present both in the room and those who had joined the meeting remotely. He began by offering thanks on behalf of the Committee for the work health colleagues continued to do daily, including the entire emergency team and frontline staff. Upon welcoming officers, he invited health colleagues to introduce the item.

Chris Bown (Chief Executive, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWUHT)) echoed the thanks offered by the Chair, expressing gratefulness to staff for the care they had provided during the pandemic. He advised that LNWUHT were aware Maternity Services at Northwick Park needed to improve, and expressed that the residents of North West London deserved the very best maternity services, acknowledging that there was some work to do to ensure that happened. He advised the Committee that the Maternity Care Improvement Plan, which had been in place before the CQC inspection, had come in response to a number of individual reports detailed in the agenda paper the Committee had received, and from those reports and the CQC inspection report the plan had been developed. Chris Bown highlighted that the Plan was dynamic, had received input from staff, and there had already been a number of significant improvements made since the beginning of the year.

In continuing the introduction, Lisa Knight (Chief Nurse, LNWUHT) advised that looking back over the past 18 months of maternity care, the monthly review of perinatal mortality death rates of babies had highlighted a rise in perinatal mortality death in July 2020. This was flagged with the ICS and support requested, which the ICS provided straight away in the form of a specialist panel to review all of those cases. That panel consisted of neonatal specialist midwives and professors from other units for an external view of what was happening within the organisation. Lisa Knight advised that at the same time other things started to become apparent, for example the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), who had been reviewing the same cases, started to raise some themes the unit should look in to with regards to its care. As well as this, Health Education England undertook a review and conducted regular work with junior doctors who had fed back that it was a difficult environment to work in and they had issues raising concerns and not getting the support required. A staff survey was conducted, which flagged many themes as detailed in the report. Lisa Knight advised that all of this information was pulled together to form a picture of the ongoing issues within the unit, and from there the Trust started pulling together the Maternity Improvement Plan, supported by the Integrated Care System (ICS). The Plan had also been presented to the quality summit held by NHS England.

Lisa Knight advised the Committee of the three themes the Maternity Improvement Plan focused on. Workforce culture and leadership focused on how the Trust could improve the environment for staff to work in and how civility could be improved. Women  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Head of Executive and Member Services or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.