Maternity unit: Costs of review report revealed (From Witney Gazette)

Maternity unit: Costs of review report revealed

8:40am Friday 15th March 2013 in News By Tom Jennings

A REPORT into a closed maternity unit had no costs other than staff time, the Oxford University Hospitals Trust has said.

Births at the Cotswold Maternity Unit in Chipping Norton were suspended in October and a report explaining why was released this week.

The report claimed staff were bullied and described a rift between the “old guard” and those trying to meet national guidelines.

It went on to say that management had failed to address the problems.

The trust’s board met on Wednesday and decided to reopen the unit on July 1, once 31 recommendations have been put in place.

A trust spokesman said last night that the inquiry had cost nothing beyond staff time, which could not easily be quantified.

The report was lead by the trust’s head of midwifery, Jane Hervé, but its independence was agreed by Oxfordshire’s joint health overview & scrutiny committee.

She said there was no building cost of suspending births because the unit remained open to anti and post natal check and breastfeeding support.

The spokesman added: “The staff all continued to work through the inquiry. All that happened was that there were no births taking place at the unit.”