Meeting documents

To receive this report. 

The Committee received a report from the Deputy Director of Quality and Safety which provided an update on Somerset Maternity Services and the local Maternity Transformation programme.

The report focused on how maternity services are responding to the Betters Births report published in Feb 2016 and the quality measures put in place to ensure monitoring of the key priorities.  Somerset has been chosen as one of eight national early adopter sites for Better Births, to support this transformational change in maternity services.  The core Somerset bid is for the implementation of IT and Post-natal support for Somerset.

 It is expected that the Local Maternity Services (LMS) will align with Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) footprints in Somerset.  The challenge we have in Somerset is that the RUH, Weston and Dorset are outside our STP footprint and Local Maternity Systems will be expected to develop and implement a local vision for improved services. 

•      commissioners and providers are asked to work together across areas as local maternity systems (LMS)1, with the aim of ensuring women, their babies and their families have equitable access to the services they choose and need, as close to home as possible. In particular, the role of the LMS is to:

•      bring together all providers involved in the delivery of maternity and neonatal care, including, for example, the ambulance service and midwifery practices providing NHS care locally

•      develop a local vision for improved maternity services based on the principles of Better Births

•      co-design services with service users and local communities

•      put in place the infrastructure needed to support services working together

In addition, the Committee received an update with regard to potential changes to maternity services at Dorchester Hospital which may impact on Yeovil District Hospital. 

In September 2015, as part of its overall Clinical Service Review, Dorset CCG asked the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) to conduct an Invited Review of the current service provision for maternity, neonatal and paediatric services.  This review focussed on the services provided at Poole, Bournemouth, Dorchester and Yeovil Hospitals.  The resulting report raised questions about the long-term sustainability of the current model of provision and proposed some high level future service options.  The RCPCH report is publically available via the Dorset CCG website. 

Following the publication of this report, the Boards of Yeovil District Hospital and Dorset County Hospital have agreed to work together to explore in more detail the options for the future model of maternity and paediatric services across the two sites. It was acknowledged that key to this work will be ensuring that the broader access implications for the populations of West Dorset and East Somerset are fully considered, recognising the responsibility of Yeovil District Hospital to work as part of the Somerset NHS.  A data modelling exercise is underway to inform this.

The work is on-going and an options appraisal will be developed for consideration in the summer 2017.  Any future service change will be subject to the NHS England requirements which would involve a full public consultation.

The following points were raised during discussion:

·        Why is there such a high level of induced births in Somerset?

-        It’s because of becoming risk adverse to decrease the number of still births.

·        It was clarified that the review of service at Dorchester Hospital and Yeovil District Hospital (YDH) was concerned with safety and not with cutting services.  Weston Hospital and YDH are two of the smallest maternity units in the country.

·        If YDH maternity service is taken away, it is a long way to Dorchester.

-        I don’t think it is about YDH closing but more about how YDH would cope if Dorchester closes.

The Committee noted the report and asked for an update when more information was known regarding Dorchester Hospital.