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Maternity Unit Awarded Highest Standard for Patient Safety
Written by Communications Team   

Maternity Services at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, based at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, were recently awarded the top standard for patient safety protocols by the NHS Litigation Authority.

The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (Maternity Standards) measures the way maternity departments manage safety and risk, essentially to ensure services are as safe as possible. Achieving Level 3, which is the highest level, means that as well as having the right safety protocols in place and put into practice, the Trust is regularly reviewing the service and making responsive changes.

Associate Director of Maternity Services at the Trust, Eileen Nolan, comments: “We are absolutely delighted with this achievement which reflects the huge improvements we have made to our maternity services over the past few years. We are the first unit in the country to achieve Level 3 since the standards were revised and the bar raised earlier this year.

Staff on the unit have worked incredibly hard to ensure we were ready for this assessment which – most importantly – means we are able to offer our mums and families the very highest safety standards. What is particularly impressive is that usually Trusts aren’t encouraged to move from Level 2 to Level 3 for a minimum of 2 years, but the St Peter’s Unit was allowed to apply within just 8 months due to the high standards they already had in place.”

In addition to high safety standards, we have also done a lot of refurbishment work over the past year, most recently our delivery suites which now all have ensuite bathrooms, offering our mums and families the very best levels of care and comfort.”