Liverpool Women’s Hospital is a safe place.
This is critically important. Reports in 2015 said that 2 out of 3 hospitals did not reach this target. Liverpool Women’s hospital did.
How are hospitals monitored for safety? Each hospital has a nationally approved system for recording how safe it is. Every hospital is monitored nationally. “We look at more than 150 different sets of data to help us to monitor NHS acute trusts.”
http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/monitoring-nhs-acute-hospitals
“As stated by the CQC, (Care Quality Commission) services provided by Liverpool Women’s are safe and of good quality” http://www.liverpoolccg.nhs.uk/media/1245/lccg-governing-body-tuesday-8th-march-2016-papers-pack-website-version.pdf
Liverpool Women’s Hospital trust report from May 2015 is here. The major concern recorded was about problems in whistle blowing procedures.
http://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/REP_105v3_WV.pdf
Never Events
‘Never Events’ are serious incidents that are wholly preventable, as guidance or safety recommendations that provide strong systemic protective barriers are available at a national level, and should have been implemented by all healthcare providers. Each ‘Never Event’ type has the potential to cause serious patient harm or death. However, serious harm or death is not required to have happened as a result of a specific incident for that incident to be categorized as a ‘Never Event’.
‘Never Events’ have to be reported to the board of the trust, to the Clinical Commissioning Group and nationally
‘Never Events’ include incidents such as:
- wrong site surgery
- retained instrument post operation (leaving something inside a patient during an operation)
- wrong route administration of chemotherapy
https://www.england.nhs.uk/patientsafety/never-events/
Each ‘Never Event’ is studied in detail. The last one we have been able to find for Liverpool Women’s Hospital was this one (which in the end was not classed as a ‘Never Event’), a surgery error and administering insulin in error);
“The Never Event reported by Liverpool Women’s (as detailed in the March 2016 Performance Report) has since been reclassified/re-graded as a Serious Incident. After reviewing the Never Event guidance Liverpool Clinical commissioning Group reached agreement with Liverpool Women’s Hospital that the incident did not meet Never Event criteria and should therefore not be subject to the counting process”
We cannot find, in the records we have studied, a “Never” event linked to transporting women from the Liverpool Women’s Hospital to the local acute hospital.
http://www.liverpoolccg.nhs.uk/media/1353/lccg-governing-body-12-april-2016-agenda.pdf
However, hospitals can have one-off or incipient problems
There have previously been incidents at Liverpool Women’s hospital, one of which may well still be impacting on the women concerned, arising from the work of a particular surgeon. This certainly is affecting the premium for insurance that the hospital faces. We do not ignore or excuse such mistakes, but wish to make it clear that when incidents happen they are recorded and investigated.
There are also national procedures for reporting Serious Incidents, the next most serious event after a ‘Never Event’. When a serious incident is reported a Root Cause Analysis is undertaken.
It would be extremely serious not to report a Serious Incident.
Campaigners have raised the issue of the hospital being described as being unsafe directly with the board and had it confirmed that the hospital is safe and good. this is also asserted in many publications.
Save Liverpool Women's Hospital 