Wye Valley NHS Trust’s (WVT) maternity care has been scored in the top five performing Trusts in the region for key areas and above the national average in a recently published patient survey.

The national survey undertaken by the Care Quality Commission, which has been published recently, provides direct feedback from women about their experience of maternity care, including antenatal care, labour and birth and postnatal care.

The Trust is in the five top performing Trusts in the region for all of the main categories, including start of your care during pregnancy, antenatal check-ups, during pregnancy, your labour and birth, staff caring for you, care in the ward after birth, feeding your baby, and care at home after birth.

WVT’s score has significantly increased in eight areas compared to the previous year’s results and the Trust is above the national average for the majority of areas in the survey. 

The Trust has also scored in the top five Trusts nationally for:

• being able to speak to the midwife as much as the patient wanted
• being given appropriate information before induction of labour
• being taken seriously if raising an issue
• being able to access support and advice round the clock for feeding your baby
• receiving help and advice in the six weeks after the birth of your baby    

Amie Symes, the Trust’s Associate Director of Midwifery, said: “We are delighted to receive the CQC Maternity Survey.

“We’re pleased to have made steady improvements within our maternity service, which reflect the hard work and dedication our maternity team has invested into implementing improvements across our maternity service.

“We would like to extend our thanks to those who participated in the survey, as the report offers invaluable insight into our services.  We are committed to working in partnership with the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) to co-produce an action plan for further service improvement and are excited to progress this work.

“We also encourage parents to join the Maternity Voices Partnership, which enables people to influence and shape our priorities.”

Herefordshire MNVP is a safe space to share your views on the latest developments in maternity care at the Trust. Parents can contribute to service improvement by sharing feedback and supporting work to scope the future maternity care.

If you are interested in getting involved, can get in touch via email - hwicb.herefordshiremvp@nhs.net – or via Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership Facebook page or drop in to one of the listening events where you will receive a warm welcome.

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Notes to editors

• Wye Valley NHS Trust is a provider of health services across Herefordshire and beyond. The Trust exists to improve the wellbeing, independence and health of the people we serve.
• By working closely with our partners, we can make good our promise to deliver a quality of care we would want for ourselves, our families and our friends.
• With an estimated annual turnover of around £295 million, we employ around 3,000 staff. We aim to build new relationships between our staff, patients, service users and their carers with the wider community.

 For further information please contact:

Fiona Gurney, communications officer, or John Burnett, Communication and Engagement Manager, Wye Valley NHS Trust: 01432 372928