West Suffolk Hospital: Midwives' critical letter right says boss

A whistleblowing letter sent by maternity staff to inspectors and a newspaper was "the right thing to do", the hospital's boss said.

Midwives at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds said they were "exhausted and broken" and claimed the unit was "consistently short-staffed".

The hospital had previously been criticised for its treatment of whistleblowers.

Its interim chief executive Craig Black said the letter was a "brave thing".

The anonymous letter was sent to the Bury Free Press, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the West Suffolk Foundation NHS Trust, in August. It claimed the midwives had spoken out because standards of care had fallen sharply.

Staff were "under extreme pressures all the time, which has left them fed up, exhausted and burnt out", it said.

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Source: BBC News, 19 October 2021