A HOSPITAL trust which runs the DGH has employed six new full-time midwives but still needs another four to cope with the increase in babies expected to be born in the next three years.
In a report charting East Sussex Hospitals Trust's results against a safe birth action plan, the trust reports that staffing in its maternity department is an 'issue', one made worse by the amount of time midwives and doctors spend on paperwork whi
ch could be done by clerical staff.
More and more babies are being born, with the birth rate in Sussex, Surrey and Kent expected to rise by five per cent by 2012.
This means more midwives must come in, with South East Coast Strategic Health Authority (SHA) aiming to have one midwife for every 28 births in 2012.
East Sussex Hospitals Trust is asking for funding from NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald to help pay the salaries of four more midwives but is currently the most well-staffed of Sussex trusts, with one midwife per 31 births, within the current SHA target.
However, the trust reports that its midwifery units have on occasions been placed 'on divert', with new women in labour being sent to alternative hospitals because of a lack of medical staff.
Consultants, who should be present on the labour ward for 40 hours a week, were not, although the trust is discussing funding to employ two more.
More administrative staff are also planned be brought in to deal with paperwork.
Chief nurse Jane Hentley has drawn up a 'dashboard' for maternity, with areas marked red, amber or green for patient safety.
She said safety was a key priority for the trust and added, "Good progress has been made in many of the areas outlined in the original report (on safe births, produced by independent charity the King's Fund] and clear actions are in place for those recommendations that are still an amber or red rating."
victoria.allen@trbeckett.co.uk
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