Maternity boss 'confident' as unit reopens

Maternity boss 'confident' as unit reopensJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMatthew HillWest of England health correspondentBBCDeirdre Fowler is the chief nurse and chief midwife at Somerset NHS Foundation TrustThe head of a maternity ward says she has full confidence that patients will be safe as it reopens.Maternity services and the Special Care Baby Unit at Yeovil District Hospital in Somerset closed in May 2025 after the Care Quality Commission highlighted safety concerns over staffing, equipment and learning from serious incidents.Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said it had addressed the concerns by recruiting staff, combining workforces with Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, and improving its facilities and training systems.Professor Deirdre Fowler, chief nurse and chief midwife at the trust, said: "We are really confident we have done what we need to do to really meet the standards we need."More from SomersetHospital's 'complex' stroke unit move delayedFine for man who pleaded guilty to huntingDriver arrested after Porsche found crashedFowler added that she understood the anxiety felt by expectant parents and acknowledged the importance of listening to healthcare regulators and the community."It's really important that we have strengthened governance and leadership and that we are able to recognise risk and respond really quickly," she said.A former NHS inspector previously told the BBC that the closure of the maternity unit could have been avoided if she had been listened to.Amanda Ford, a registered nurse and midwife, said she witnessed "appalling care" and a baby death that should not have occurred while she worked for the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch in the region from 2019 until 2020."Yeovil was one of my first units I was asked to go and investigate some incidents," she said."Within a month… I just was appalled. One was a baby death. That's a death that sho...