Most conditions lifted on Milton Keynes’ licence

Conditions were originally imposed on Milton Keynes Hospital’s licence in response to concerns over its maternity services.
We found that the trust was not meeting four of our essential standards of quality and safety, and was required to make a series of improvements.
The report published today, shows that the trust has made significant changes to its maternity services, and is now better placed to cope with peaks in demand.
The trust has complied with conditions requiring:
• a revised action plan to address outstanding recommendations made by the Healthcare Commission in 2008.
• a new system that allows midwives to assess and monitor the quality of services provided by the maternity department.
• a revised audit programme that takes into account incidents and complaints.
• a clinical governance system to assess and monitor the quality of service provision across all services.
• that serious incidents and risks are reported to the board and healthcare governance committee.
• that midwives recruited since 1 January 2010 be given comprehensive training in promoting normal births, local maternity policies and procedures and escalation procedures.
• that recommendations made by the Oxford Deanery be reviewed.
We will return to Milton Keynes later in the year to ensure the remaining conditions are met, and we will be prepared to take further action if the trust has not demonstrated compliance with our standards.