Awards highlight 'outstanding' care provided by Swansea Bay maternity staff

SWANSEA Bay’s maternity and neo-natal staff have won warm praise from new mums and their families for providing ‘outstanding’ care.

The positive feedback has come in the form of nominations for this year’s health board Patient Choice Awards.

Pictured above: Staff joined patients for a celebratory photograph after the awards.

The awards offer patients, their families and friends an opportunity to say a huge thank you for the care and support they’ve received by nominating an individual or a team for an award.

People fill in a nomination form, detailing the reasons why they’d like a staff member or team to receive an award and are then invited to one of a number of presentation events being staged across Swansea Bay hospitals and sites.

The awards, which have been running for a number of years but were put on hold in 2019 due to the Covid pandemic, are proving very popular this year with 379 nominations for staff to date.

Among them are stories of heartfelt gratitude for maternity staff, including midwife Debbie Boulter, who received her nomination from Lisa Ruffell.

Lisa wrote: “Debbie’s care of myself, my husband and our new-born baby during labour and delivery was just outstanding.

“She made what could have been quite a traumatic birth experience a really positive one, which we have nothing but good memories of.

“She ensured we knew exactly what was going on at all times in the process and that we were comfortable with decisions that we were making or which needed to be made for us.

“She was friendly, kind and calm while still taking control of the situation as needed. She also made sure to come back and speak with us, even though her shift had finished by that point, to ensure that we were happy with everything that had happened.

“We couldn't have asked for someone better to be with us during our first birthing experience and we are so grateful to her for assisting in the safe arrival of our baby Harry.”

Meanwhile ante-natal maternity support worker Katherine Gasson won the praise of a nominator called Morgan, who commented: “Katharine is a very familiar face to all of the women in Ante Natal clinic… every day.

“She is always so patient with my best friend when she is in the hospital and every women I see her care for.

“She always goes the extra mile, even when she doesn’t need to. I see how hard she works in the clinic, running multiple clinics with up to four clinic rooms and doctors all on her own. She truly cares so much for every women she cares for and it is extremely apparent in the way she works. Amazing women!”

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit staff nurse Leigh Bainbridge was described as ‘amazing’ by new mum Rhiannon Hodgson, whose son Odin was cared for in the unit for three days after arriving prematurely.

“Leigh looked after Odin for three days, always making sure we were fully up to date with all aspects of his care and allowing us to understand what was going on. Leigh is such an angel in scrubs who made our neonatal journey a little bit easier!

“Leigh was looking after Odin on a nightshift when I unexpectedly had a phone call from my husband to say my elder son had had a seizure and I needed to get home as soon as I could. I put Odin back into his incubator and quickly informed another nurse of what had happened and could they explain to Leigh why I wasn't able to stay?

“I later phoned and spoke to Leigh who reassured me that it was okay to focus on my elder son and that my youngest son was being well looked after.

“That night, Leigh made sure that we regularly received updates and pictures, explaining what he was up to and how he had been. This helped me and my husband relax, knowing our youngest baby was okay and had an amazing lady providing him with support.

“Leigh always made sure I was doing okay and recovering from giving birth, while making sure my husband was doing well. Overall, she was just a bundle of joy.

“Leigh genuinely doesn't realise the difference she made to our NICU journey and we are so grateful for her. I just wish we were able to see her before being discharged to thank her in person. Therefore, this is why I am nominating Leigh as a thank you for being so amazing.”

Rhiannon also nominated midwife Helen Muxworthy, who had cared for and supported her throughout her pregnancy.

She described Helen as ‘an absolutely amazing’ midwife, adding: “If Helen was on community midwife care and needed to see me, she'd always include my husband and my son in anything she had to do with me and my unborn son. Helen regularly kept in touch, making sure I was doing well mentally and physically.”

Neonatal Consultant Dr Sujoy Banerjee was nominated by an extremely grateful Sarah Jaye Cude, who wrote in her nomination: “Dr Banerjee has been nothing short of amazing from the moment we first met him, at my son Jacob's first appointment last year.

“I instantly felt at ease with his calm, friendly nature and he listened intently to my concerns that I thought things with Jacob were not quite right, which made me feel both validated and relieved that someone was finally able to help and support us.

“Dr Banerjee is not only a truly outstanding medical professional, but a truly lovely, lovely person too. Being the humble person that he is, he will no doubt say that he is only doing his job, but for us, he has gone above and beyond. We are forever grateful.”