13-05-2025
Temporary closure for Yeovil maternity unit after warning
A hospital's birthing service is to close for six months amid a warning from the health watchdog about its paediatric District Hospital was served a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It comes after a series of earlier critical reports on Somerset's maternity statement on the paediatric service said the warning was issued "for failing to meet the regulations related to staffing and governance systems".It means the only maternity unit in Somerset left fully open is at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital. There are also units in Bath and Dorchester.
The paediatric staffing problems are understood to have a knock-on for maternity services which have resulted in the temporary closure of birthing services at maternity services, like antenatal appointments, are expected to continue at Yeovil during the six month 1,200 babies were born at Yeovil District Hospital last year, with 3,000 births at Musgrove Park news of the birthing services closure comes a year after a critical report into maternity services at both hospitals in watchdog found there was expired milk in a fridge at Musgrove Park and criticised staff in Yeovil for not washing their hands when entering clinical CQC acknowledged staff at the trust were "keen to improve the services and some of the problems were out of local leaders' control".Chief executive for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Peter Lewis, said at the time: "The real issue is that we do recognise that we have fallen short of the standards that are expected and the standards that we would expect."It's important to say sorry to the families that do use our services, but also sorry to the colleagues that work very hard in those services, some of which the CQC has recognised in a positive way."A report to a Somerset Council health scrutiny committee this week said the Trust had made "significant progress", completing 92% of all improvement actions outlined in the CQC maternity inspection reports.
