Hospital in multi-million pound boost
A?multi-million-pound?investment in Birmingham Women 's Hospital has?helped boost recruitment and improve care for?women across the region.??
The funding has allowed the hospital?to recruit?17 new midwifery and?three?new consultant roles following an investment?of more than £2 million?to support maternal services.???
Birmingham Women 's and Children 's NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the?hospital,?made? £1.2 million?available?with an additional £1.04 million in national funding following the Ockendon Review,?which will lead to?further recruitment?in?the new year.????
Rachel?Carter, director of Midwifery and deputy chief?nurse, said?the investment and arrival of new colleagues had been a welcomed boost?but??recognised?the challenges?the team have and continue to?face?and those ahead.
She said: “The last 18 months have been incredibly challenging for our maternity services?teams,?who?have continued to be by the side of our women and families throughout the pandemic.?I want to thank our teams for their commitment and hard work.??
“The investment has allowed us to take on more midwives and consultants and invest in those already working in our teams, so that services can run more seamlessly and we can provide protected time for learning across our teams.??
“Further increasing our staffing numbers over the next few months will be another step towards helping us to reduce the pressure on our colleagues, and make services more efficient. This will help us to offer a higher quality of care for women, babies and families across the communities we serve. ”??
One of those midwives is Autumn White, a new qualified midwife who joined the Trust in October last year.
She said: “I 've found it a really positive experience, I 've learned so much about the more complex sides to midwifery - I 've been really well supported by staff and you do see the busyness of maternity as a whole but you 're well supported as a new midwife.
“My best moments have been working with the team over the Christmas period. I was working Christmas Day and they made it feel so homely and so festive! It was so nice to see the team supporting new moms around this time, helping them to become confident in parents and go home with their babies.
“I think the investment will have a huge impact, definitely having more staff around so that we can spend more time with our women, the team is growing and beginning to work more smoothly as we go.
“I 've found that it 's important to also support colleagues through lots of communication not just about work but also asking them about how their days going, everyone needs a check in every now and then to make sure we can share the workload throughout the day. ”
The Trust also held a staff led Quality Summit and?cultural review?of?the?service. These provided greater understanding of the areas for focus for the Quality?Improvement Programme launched last year.??
?Rachel?Carter added: “We have made positive progress across last 18 months despite the challenges that Covid-19 has brought with it, however there is still much more that we are committed to doing so that we can create the best possible maternity and neonatal care system for families, patients and our teams.??
? “We 're assured by the commitment and hard work put in by all of our teams and want to say thank you for their amazing attitude throughout the challenging times that last year brought us and for their dedication as we continue to move forward together. ”??
Pictured: The funding has allowed the Women 's Hospital to recruit new midwives