Warrington and Halton Maternity has won ‘Midwifery Service of the Year’ in Royal College of Midwives National Awards which was held in London.
The service beat off stiff competition from Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and NHS Highland in this category, which was sponsored by Kellogg’s All-Bran.
The national award comes shortly after the Trust’s own annual ‘Thank You’ staff awards held at the Parr Hall on March 3 where Maternity won Team of the Year. Earlier in the year the service reached the finals of the national HSJ Awards in the Patient Safety category.
The team developed the ‘YOUR PREGNANCY, YOUR BIRTH, YOUR CHOICE’ campaign which became the driver for change, using a bottom-up approach and working closely with patients and former patients to achieve a best-in-class service. The final part of the recovery journey saw the new Midwifery Led Unit open in May 2016 – a real platform for the future of midwifery and childbirth at WHH.
Chief Executive Mel Pickup said “We couldn’t be more proud of our Maternity team who so deserve this national, independent recognition. Two years of sustained focus and energy has seen the whole team work together to rebuild their unit, restore patient and public confidence and the pride and passion of its workforce.
Our team delivers quality, safe and compassionate maternity care and our ladies and their families consistently highly recommend this Trust as a place to give birth and enjoy a superior patient experience.
This award is a testament to the team’s sheer hard work and determination to turn their service around and make things better for patients, families and staff.”
In a separate category Katherine Conquest was ‘highly commended’ in the Excellence in Maternity Care category for her maternity acupuncture service – WHH is the only Trust in the country to bring this midwife-led service.
