General Hospital birthing pools (FOI)

Request

A

Could you share the results of the investigation into the birthing pool at Jersey’s hospital during the time it was temporarily closed in 2018?

B

What were the concerns about some babies’ health? What health concerns did they develop?

C

How many babies needed extra pre-natal care during that time?

D

What were the recommendations from the UK expert who came to review the birthing pool?

E

What guidelines will be changed in future when it comes to the birthing pool?

F

Can you tell me about the current make of pool and how it is cleaned and what are the current safety regulations for using it?

Response

A

There has not been an investigation into the birthing pools at Jersey General Hospital. There was an internal investigations in relation to a small number of births where birthing pools where used.

B

Due to the small number of individual cases (fewer than five), disclosure control has been applied to the data in order to protect the identity of individuals, in accordance with Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

C

The term pre-natal relates to the period between conception and birth. It is presumed the question relates to the period immediately following birth, however due to the small number of individual cases, disclosure control has been applied in accordance with Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

D

The birthing pools used in Jersey were not the subject of external review.

E

The Health and Community Services policy for use of the birthing pool follows national best practice and did not require amendment. The Policy will be reviewed again in six months as per best practice nationally.

F

The current make of pools used in Jersey General Hospital are ‘Birth Pool in a Box’.

The pools use a single use disposable liner. Following use the liner is disposed of and the pool cleaned following the Standard Operating Procedure for Routine Cleaning, Maintenance and Decontamination for Birthing Pool.

The pool and all accessories are cleaned first with detergent and warm water, rinsed and cleaned again with a chorine releasing agent and rinsed again. The pool is then dried. The detachable hoses are disposed of.

An individual risk assessment is carried out on all patients requesting to use the birthing pool and there is an exclusion criteria for those patients having certain infections or disease such as HIV or Hepatitis.

Article applied

Article 25 Personal Information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if:

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law