Maternity Units      

FOI REFERENCE: 24147   FOI DATE: 4^th June 2024     

1. Do each of your maternity units which offer consultant-led births have two obstetric theatres available 24/7 with a full complement of staff available should the second theatre be needed? How long does it take to mobilise the second theatre and staff if it needed?

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have 1 Obstetric theatre which is staffed 24/7. We also have an intervention room (used as a second theatre) situated on delivery suite. The intervention room is staffed 8-5.30 Monday – Thursday. Outside of these hours if needed the second theatre team can be mobilised from main theatre (from the CEPOD list) to come down to open the Intervention room.

2.  If you don’t have a second obstetric theatre, what arrangements are in place should you have two obstetric emergencies requiring theatres at the same time? What hours are covered by these arrangements? 

We would call Main theatres and mobilise the team from CEPOD (situated above delivery suite). They would come down so we could operate in the Intervention room. This arrangement occurs at all times when we don’t have the intervention room staffed as per timings in Question 1.
 

3. If you don’t have a second obstetric theatre, have you any plans to establish one? Has funding been obtained and how much?

The intervention room will be upgraded to provide a 2nd theatre in early 2025 – fully funded. A second theatre team will need to be moved from CEPOD if we need to staff it outside of the hours documented in Q1. 
 

4. How long approximately does it take to transfer a woman from the labour ward to 1. Your normal obstetric theatre? 2. Whichever additional theatre would be used in the event of two emergencies at the same time?

Both the Obstetric theatre and the intervention room are situated on delivery suite so transfer time for both is <5mins 
 

5. Have you had any serious incidents/Datix (or other reporting system) reports in the last three years involving lack of timely access to fully staffed theatres in maternity emergencies? No