BOSSES at Basildon Hospital say lessons will be learnt from the critical report by the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.

During an exclusive interview with the Echo, Clare Panniker, Chief Executive at Basildon, Southend and Broomfield Hospital said Basildon Hospital’s maternity unit is safe for mums, despite serious concerns being raised by the commission.

>> Staff admit to 'long standing, poor culture' as maternity unit is blasted in report

Here are the key questions answered:

Do you think the work being done and measures being taken will be enough to reassure the Care Quality Commission that it’s enough?

Yes I think so absolutely. They will find improvements with our maternity unit. They are not looking for, and won’t find, perfection.

How likely is it that mums are going to have their choice about where to have their baby influenced by this report?

Of course it’s possible. This is a critical report and we take full responsibility for it but we are a safe unit providing a safe service and we need to make sure women are supported to continue to come here.

The vast major of women coming here are having really positive experiences as we have got really supportive staff who are working hard to give them the best care.

I think women need not be alarmed.

As a whole with the issues highlighted in the report how do you think we’ve got to this stage?

There’s been a gradual increase in the complexity of women which has put the service under pressure. We’ve been working on improvement but some didn’t or couldn’t happen quick enough.

With the issues surrounding culture why was this not addressed earlier and changes implemented quicker?

We had in place a programme more than a year ago which was about team working but we ran that as in-house intervention, but it obviously didn’t work, it wasn’t that we didn’t do anything but the intervention we put in wasn’t sufficient.

Are there major things to be learnt from this report and the concerns highlighted here?

We’ve committed with the board that we will look back and see what the learning points are so that we wouldn’t ever get in this situation again in this or any other service.

Yes there will be learning and we are committed to ensure we learn the lessons and avoid a deterioration in the future.