BBC coverage January 2024: FAQs

As a service, we are devastated when there is any harm to a mother or baby because we aim to give the best possible care to every family, every day. We are determined to learn and change when things go wrong. As a result of our internal and independent investigations, we have made significant improvements to our maternity services.

When such incidents occur, we are open about these and report them accordingly. We’d like to stress that such cases are very rare when compared to the 6000 births every year that take place in our maternity services. This does not attempt in any way to undermine the impact of the incidents reported in the programme, all of which were fully investigated.

We want to share some information to show you how we are improving services and how we learn from incidents. We have a new maternity leadership team and have increased the number of midwives and doctors into the service to support women and babies, alongside a range of other safety improvements.

The significant changes made have been driven by our staff, working closely with families and communities, to ensure everyone has a voice so that we provide the best and safest care.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

We have produced some answers to ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQs), which may help you to understand further.

Q) Are Maternity Services at Gloucestershire Hospitals safe?

We are confident that our maternity services are safe.

Over the last few years, we have made significant changes to our maternity services. These have been driven by our staff, working closely with families and communities, to ensure everyone has a voice, so that we provide the best and safest care.

Q) Is induction of labour safe?

Induction may be offered if you do not go into labour naturally by 41 weeks. Each pregnancy is different and the midwife and maternity team will listen and provide advice and support to ensure labour is safe.

Q) Are there delays in induction?

Safety of all women is considered and priority given to provide 1:1 care for women in established labour. The Maternity Team have introduced ‘induction huddles’ twice a day (a huddle is when the multidisciplinary Team meet to review the pathway for each woman) to ensure safety and raise any concerns.

Q) The BBC have reported the maternal death rate in Gloucestershire is higher than the national average – what does this mean?

The loss of any mother or baby is a tragedy and devastating for their family. All maternal deaths are reported and overseen by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) at the University of Oxford and compiled into an MBRRACE Report.

Most deaths also have further independent investigations to understand what happened and if any lessons can be shared with families and healthcare providers.

Although the BBC have stated the maternal death rate in Gloucestershire is double the national average, the Trust and the independent teams at Oxford University, and Local Maternity and Neonatal System, have all reviewed the data and confirm that the local rate is not statistically significantly different from the UK rate.

Q) Why has Panorama focused on Gloucestershire?

The programme explores the national and local challenge in recruitment and staffing and also includes three very tragic maternal and neonatal deaths in our hospitals.

It also focuses on the impact on staff experience, where some staff felt unable to speak up about safety concerns or felt that they weren’t being listened to.

The very tragic cases included in the documentary took place between 2019 to 2021 and each one was independently investigated by an external body called the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch - a body established specifically to offer an independent investigation when deaths occur in maternity.

Q) How has the Maternity service improved?

Our Maternity Services continue to go through a transformation process and as a Trust we are determined to learn and change when things go wrong and we have already made significant improvements to our maternity services including:

• New and expanded senior leadership team
• We have increased the number of midwives and doctors into the service to support women and babies
• Worked with staff to focus on patient safety, learning and continuous improvement
• Introduced a new consultant midwife role, strengthening midwifery oversight of Midwifery led care
• Ongoing recruiting and retention programme to reduce vacancies and turnover
• Improved our ‘Place of birth risk assessment’ to prevent delays in accessing urgent care if required
• Three daily safety briefings to review staffing, workload and labour inductions - ensuring concerns are addressed immediately
• Strengthened our internal Freedom to Speak Up service
• Providing a range of support for staff, including wellbeing and psychological services, peer to peer networks, and safety champions.

Since April 2020 we have invested an additional £1.8 million to increase Midwifery staffing and the number of Midwives working in the department has increased from 242.99 (2020) to 263.77 (December 2023).

Q) How is the Trust improving?

Whilst the focus of the programme is on maternity services, how we respond to issues of safety across our hospitals is an important issue for all of our services. Central to this is our work to improve and develop an open and listening culture - a culture that supports staff to speak up and be listened to on issues of patient care and safety.

Support information and additional questions

Getting in touch with our team

If your question is not answered here, you have various options to get in touch with our team, depending on its urgency:

• Speak to your named midwife
• Speak to our Patient Experience Team by calling 0800 019 3282 or emailing: ghn-tr.helplinesupport@nhs.net
• Send us a direct message on Facebook; Instagram or X (formerly Twitter)

Other local support

• Contact Gloucestershire Maternity Voices Partnership
• Contact the Forget-Me-Not support group

National support organisations

If you are affected by the issues raised in the programme and these are not directly related to our maternity care, there is a range of support available at:

• Sands (baby loss and family support)
• Tommys (baby loss and support)
• Cruse (bereavement support)

Information in different languages

Using an online service to translate our website

You can translate this page using Google Translate which uses software to translate website information into different languages. Be aware that the translation is via computer software, so there may be inaccuracies.

To use:

1. Open the page you want to translate, copy the web address.
2. Open a new tab and open Google Translate.
3. Paste the web address of the article into the box on the left.
4. Change the language above the box on the right using the ‘V’ icon and the article should be translated.

You can read more about Accessibility at our hospitals

FAQs in other languages (translations)

• Albanian / shqiptare
• Afghani
• Arabic / عربي
• Bengali / বাংলা
• فارسی / Farsi
• Polish / Polski
• Romanian / Română

Telephone relay service

This service enables non-English speakers to get in touch with us, with the help of an interpreter.

Romanian / Română

Sunaţi la următorul număr: 01413196121. Mesajul înregistrat vă va cere să introduceți următorul cod PIN: 378209

Bengali / বাংলা

এই নম্বরে কল করুন: 01413194850. রেকর্ডকৃত বার্তা আপনাকে নিচের পিন কোডটি লিখতে বলবে: 378209

Albanian / shqiptare

Telefononi numrin 01413196101. Mesazhi i regjistruar do t’ju kërkojë të futni kodin PIN që vijon: 378209

Arabic / عربي

اتصل بهذا الرقم 01413196103. ستطلب منك الرسالة المسجلة إدخال رقم التعريف الشخصي التالي: 378209

Polish / Polski

Zadzwoń pod numer 01413196118. Nagrana wiadomość poprosi Cię o podanie następującego kodu PIN: 378209

فارسی دری / Dari

378209 با این شماره به تماس شوید: 01413194842. پیام ضبط شده از شما می خواهد تا این پین کد را وارد کنید:

فارسی / Farsi

با این شماره 01413196107 تماس بگیرید. پیام ضبط شده از شما می خواهد که پین زیر را وارد کنید: 378209

Magyar / Hungarian

Hívja ezt a számot: 01413196110. A rögzített üzenet a következő PIN-kód megadására kéri: 378209

Slovenský / Slovak

Zavolajte na toto číslo 01413196123. Nahraná správa vás požiada o zadanie nasledujúceho PIN kódu: 378209

Polski / Polish

Zadzwoń pod numer 01413196118. Nagrana wiadomość poprosi Cię o podanie następującego kodu PIN: 378209

Čeština / Czech

Zavolejte na toto číslo 01413196106. Nahraná zpráva vás požádá o zadání následujícího PIN kódu: 378209

Italiano / Italian

Chiama il numero 01413196111. Il messaggio registrato ti chiederà di inserire il seguente PIN: 378209

Shqiptare / Albanian

Telefononi numrin 01413196101. Mesazhi i regjistruar do t’ju kërkojë të futni kodin PIN që vijon: 378209

Български / Bulgarian

Обадете се на този номер 01413196104. Записаното съобщение ще ви помоли да въведете следния ПИН код: 378209

Ελληνικά / Greek

Καλέστε αυτόν τον αριθμό 01413196108. Το ηχογραφημένο μήνυμα θα σας ζητήσει να εισαγάγετε τον ακόλουθο κωδικό PIN: 378209

latviešu valoda / Latvian

Zvaniet uz šo tālruņa numuru 01413196113. Ierakstītā ziņā jums tiks lūgts ievadīt šādu PIN kodu: 378209

Lingala / Lingala

Benga nimero oyo 01413196114. Message enregistré ekosenga yo okotisa PIN oyo: 378209

Українська / Ukrainian

Зателефонуйте за цим номером 01413196128. В голосовому повідомленні вас попросять ввести наступний PIN-код: 378209

کوردی سۆرانی / Kurdish Sorani

پەیوەندی بکە بەم ژمارەیە 01413196112. نامە تۆمارکراوەکە داوات لێدەکات ئەم ژمارە PIN ـەی خوارەوە دابنێیت: 378209

Русский / Russian

Позвоните по этому номеру 01413196122. В голосовом сообщении вас попросят ввести следующий PIN-код: 378209

عربي / Arabic

اتصل بهذا الرقم 01413196103. ستطلب منك الرسالة المسجلة إدخال رقم التعريف الشخصي التالي: 378209

فارسی / Farsi

با این شماره 01413196107 تماس بگیرید. پیام ضبط شده از شما می خواهد که پین زیر را وارد کنید: 378209

Tiếng Việt / Vietnamese

Hãy gọi số này 01413196130. Tin nhắn đã ghi sẽ yêu cầu bạn nhập mã PIN sau: 378209

犾话 / Mandarin

請撥打這踊號碼 01413196115 錄製的訊息會要求您輸醂嫭羧 PIN 碼：378209

اردو / Urdu

اس نمبر 01413196129 پر کال کریں. ریکارڈ کردہ پیغام آپ سے مندرجہ ذیل PIN درج کرنے کے لئے کہے گا: 378209

پنجابی

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ / Punjabi

ਇਸ ਨੰਬਰ ਨੂੰ 01413196120 ‘ਤੇ ਕਾਲ ਕਰੋ। ਰਿਕਾਰਡ ਕੀਤਾ ਸੁਨੇਹਾ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਨਿਮਨਲਿਖਤ ਪਿੰਨ[PIN] ਦਾਖਲ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਕਹੇਗਾ: 378209

ایس نمبر 01413196120 اتے کال کرو۔ ریکارڈ ہویا پیغام توانوں مندرجہ ذیل PIN بان دے لئی کووے گا: 378209

Af Soomaali / Somali

Wac lambarkan 01413194694. Farriinta la duubay ayaa ku weydiin doonta inaad galiso PIN-kan soo socda: 378209

አማርኛ / Amharic

ይህን ቁጥር ይደውሉ 01413196102 የተቀዳው መልእክት የሚከተለውን ፒን እንዲያስገቡ ይጠይቅዎታል፣ፒን፡ 378209

Română / Romanian

Sunaţi la următorul număr: 01413196121. Mesajul înregistrat vă va cere să introduceți următorul cod PIN: 378209

糀頪話 / Cantonese

褽蟧此嬱码 01413196105大縳音伩臰琧要求芶输呚鰾鉉 PIN：378209

हिन्दी / Hindi

इस नंबर पर कॉल करें 01413196109 रिकॉर्ड किया गया संदेश आपको निम्नलिखित पिन दर्ज करने के लिए कहेगा: 378209

پښتو / Pashto

دی شمیری 01413196117 ته زنګ ووهئ. ثبت شوی پیغام به له تاسو څخه غوښتنه وکړي چې لاندې PIN ولیکي: 378209

Português / Portuguese

Ligue para este número 01413196119. A mensagem gravada solicitará que insira o seguinte PIN: 378209

Español / Spanish

Llame al número 01413196132. El mensaje grabado le pedirá que introduzca el siguiente PIN: 378209

Kiswahili / Swahili

Piga simu kwenye nambari 01413196124. Ujumbe uliorekodiwa utakuomba uweke PIN ifuatayo: 378209

தமிழ் / Tamil

இந்த எண்ணை அழைக்கவும் 01413196125. பதிவுசெய்யப்பட்ட செய்தி பின்வரும் பின் ஐ உள்ளிடுமாறு கேட்கும்: 378209

ትግርኛ / Tigrinya

በዚ ቁጽሪ ደውሉ 01413196126 እቲ ዝተቐድሐ መልእኽቲ ነዚ ዝስዕብ ፒን ከተእቱ ይሓተካ፣ፒን፡ 378209

Türkçe / Turkish

Bu numarayı ara: 01413196127. Kaydedilen mesaj sizden şu PIN’i girmenizi isteyecektir: 378209

Afaan Oromoo / Oromo

Lakkoofsa kana irratti bilbilaa 01413196116. Ergaan sagalee waraabame PIN itti aanee jiru akka galchitan isin gaafata: 378209

Èdè Yorùbá / Yoruba

Pe nọ́mbà yí 01413196131. Ọ̀rọ̀ tí a ti gbàsílẹ̀ yíò bèèrè lọ́wọ́ rẹ pé kí o ṣe àtẹ̀wolé PIN yí: 378209

فارسی دری / Dari

378209 با این شماره به تماس شوید: 01413194842. پیام ضبط شده از شما می خواهد تا این پین کد را وارد کنید: XXXX

Français / French

Appelez ce numéro : 01413194846. Le message enregistré vous demandera de saisir le code PIN suivant : 378209

ქართული / Georgian

დარეკეთ ნომერზე: 01413195224. ჩაწერილი შეტყობინება მოგთხოვთ შემდეგი PIN კოდის შეყვანას: 378209

සිංහල / Sinhalese

මෙම අංකය අමතන්න: 01413194766. පටිගත කළ පණිවුඩය පහත PIN කේතය ඇතුළත් කරන ලෙස ඔබෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනු ඇත: 378209

Lietuvių kalba / Lithuanian

Skambinkite šiuo numeriu: 01413194839. Įrašytame pranešime bus prašoma įvesti šį PIN kodą: 378209

Krio

Kɔl dis nɔmba: 01413194762. Di tep ko aks yu fɔ put dis PIN kɔd: 378209

বাংলা / Begali

এই নম্বরে কল করুন: 01413194850. রেকর্ডকৃত বার্তা আপনাকে নিচের পিন কোডটি লিখতে বলবে: 378209