MOTHERS are giving birth in medical units which do not have enough beds, showers or toilets, according to a damning inspection which found some Yorkshire health trusts were among the worst-performing in the country.
The Healthcare Commission says in some cases beds in maternity units can be used for more than one birth every 24 hours and that pregnant women are also forced to use communal bath and shower facilities.
Today's study finds some hospitals have sta
ffing levels "well below" average, consultants do not always spend adequate time on wards, not all staff receive enough training and women are limited in the choice of where they can give birth.
The commission examined all aspects of maternity care at all 150 NHS trusts in England. Hospitals in Scarborough and Bradford were named among the least well-performing in the country earlier this year as part of the review.
The report says: "For the average trust there are 3.6 delivery beds per 1,000 births per year, which means that each bed is used for 0.7 births per day.
"However, some trusts have as few as two beds per 1,000 births per year, which means that each bed is used for 1.4 births per day. This seems excessive and there is clearly a need to increase the capacity of delivery beds in these units." The report says fewer than one in five NHS trusts has a bath for every delivery room and only half of the maternity units in the country have at least one bath for every four delivery rooms.
One of the Government's key aims is to give every woman choice over where to give birth, including in units led by obstetricians or midwives or at home.
But the report warns that the choice of maternity units is actually very limited with around two-thirds of trusts only offering obstetric units.
Sir Ian Kennedy, the commission's chairman, said: "There is clearly more to be done to improve the quality of clinical care as well as the experiences of women. The matters raised and the views expressed must not be ignored." The Government's chief nursing officer, Christine Beasley, said an extra £330m to recruit an extra 4,000 midwives by 2012 would offer patients more choice.
The Healthcare Commission said the choice given to pregnant women in Scarborough and the involvement of key stakeholders in planning services were among areas where the local trust was performing poorly. However, the trust said: "We feel that in the earlier evaluation of services we were let down by our ability to gather and provide accurate information, but with the introduction of a new computer system we hope that we are now in a better position to meet requirements."
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