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A report into maternity services in the Cwm Taf health board – centred mainly on the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant – found significant staffing issues.
In October 2018, the Health Minister said a midwife shortage would be investigated due to an abnormal increase in infant deaths and other “incidents” in the health board between 2016-2018, believed to be 44 separate incidents in total.
The Healthcare Inspectorate Wales report – which has been reported on in the media but not officially released yet – found serious staff shortages, staff fatigue, poor cover and poor training. The report also reportedly says: “We were concerned about the potential risk to the safety of patients. This is because we did not feel that the resilience of the maternity department was sufficient to maintain patient safety if action was not taken.”
Consultant-led maternity and paediatric inpatient services were withdrawn from the Royal Glamorgan Hospital on March 9th 2019, with patients now being redirected to Merthyr’s Prince Charles Hospital and Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital – the latter of which is due to move into the Cwm Taf health board on April 1st 2019.
