As part of the ongoing programme of improvement work in women’s services, NHS Lothian has commissioned a report to help strengthen its valued and dedicated teams.
Researchers worked with staff over a number of weeks to provide clear insight about their views on workplace culture and how it impacts them.
It comes as part of an intensive improvement programme after concerns were raised in a whistleblowing report about patient safety and working culture within women’s services in NHS Lothian.
Patient safety was obviously prioritised and a tremendous amount of work has since been carried out to robustly review all aspects of care and workforce, including working patterns, training and environment. There has also been investment in 31 additional midwives and other staff in the directorate.
The focus has now turned to the concerns around working culture and the need to improve support for hard-pressed frontline staff.
Caroline Hiscox, Chief Executive, NHS Lothian, said: “Our colleagues are the backbone of NHS Lothian and the improvement work in women’s services continues to be taken extremely seriously. That is why I asked our Deputy Chief Executive and our Director of People and Culture to provide Executive leadership for the improvement programme which includes oversight of these next steps to ensure staff can trust in our commitment to them.”
Tom Power, Director of People and Culture, NHS Lothian, said the report identified positives and negatives in workplace culture, revealing extra support is needed to address issues in the directorate to bring it into line with the organisational values.
He added: “Our improvement plan prioritised patient safety and care to give us assurance that we were providing safe care to women and babies.
“Now, in this latest round of work, we are focussing on our teams and our leadership to make sure staff feel supported at work, safe to raise concerns and able to thrive.
“We commissioned this independent research because we wanted to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to get a truly comprehensive picture of the experience of our teams in Women’s Services.”
The review praised frontline staff for their dedication, compassion and teamwork and noted the strong sense of peer support and collaboration among clinical staff, to help maintain safe, high quality care.
However, the findings also indicate relationships with leaders were often strained, causing problems with general work wellbeing, stress and even bullying or perceptions of unfair treatment and frustration.
He added: “I apologise to those who have been let down at work and reassure them that we are determined to support them better to do the job they love.
“During the focus sessions, many of our staff talked about their role in women’s services as being a “calling”, such is their level of dedication to providing care for women and babies.
“I would like to reassure women and their families, as the report make clear, that they and their babies will receive high-quality care from our committed and professional staff.”
The findings and suggested actions have been discussed directly with teams and they have been merged into the overall improvement plan which began in August 2024.
It began after a whistleblowing report raised questions about patient safety and working culture within women’s services. It also focussed on a rare incidence of maternal death which is the subject of a forthcoming Significant Adverse Event (SAE) review.
NHS Lothian continues to await the outcome of the SAE and address any recommendations from that, however actions in relation to the whistleblowing concerns are already underway.
All aspects of patient care and workforce as well as staff working patterns, training and environment have been reviewed. Engagement with staff was immediate and an improvement plan was designed with staff in an open and transparent process.
This work with the independent consultancy was part of that wide-ranging programme.
