Government launches national maternity investigation to drive improvements

[IwantToRetire]

I am sure they only recently had one. But this is what Wes Streeting is saying:

For the past year, I have been meeting bereaved families from across the country who have lost babies or suffered serious harm during what should have been the most joyful time in their lives.

What they have experienced is devastating – deeply painful stories of trauma, loss, and a lack of basic compassion – caused by failures in NHS maternity care that should never have happened. Their bravery in speaking out has made it clear: we must act – and we must act now.

I know nobody wants better for women and babies than the thousands of NHS midwives, obstetricians, maternity and neonatal staff, and that the vast majority of births are safe and without incident, but it’s clear something is going wrong.

That’s why I’ve ordered a rapid national investigation to make sure these families get the truth and the accountability they deserve, and ensure no parent or baby is ever let down again. I want staff to come with us on this, to improve things for everyone.

We‘re also taking immediate steps to hold failing services to account and give staff the tools they need to deliver the kind, safe, respectful care every family deserves.

Maternity care should be the litmus test by which this government is judged on patient safety, and I will do everything in my power to ensure no family has to suffer like this again.

Full details at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-maternity-investigation-launched-to-drive-improvements

Thank you. Wes really does seem to get it and want to make the right changes.,

What I would like is to hear from units that are good. If there are any.

Certainly support the intention.

But over the past year (maybe 18 months) there have been a number of reports into failures into maternity care.

It would be great to hear that at least one has led to positive changes, not just find there is another aspect of maternity care that doesn't always achieve what it should.

I was glad to see this. Women and babies deserve better.

In addition, good care makes economic sense, if one wants to frame it in purely basic terms.

Yay yet another report to say all the things the previous government reports on maternity services have already said and all the things the CQC already have said.

How about actually DOING something to change this, rather than a pr exercise in pretending you are doing something by commissioning a report that says the things you already know and have been said many times over?

I honestly wonder if midwife led care is now an out of date and unsafe model. A lot of the issues have been with failure to recognise complications and failure to escalate medical interventions in time. We need to have a very hard discussion about what modern maternity care should look like - my community midwife was lovely but failed to diagnose a breach presentation which thankfully was identified by a consultant before labour. I don't have much faith in midwifery in the UK.

100% agree. I find it ridiculous that they somehow need to re analyse what is not working again unless the prior work was useless?

So much of government seems to be Groundhog Day with no practical achievement

Doing something >>>> Re-writing a report someone could produce in 5 min using ChatGPT to summarize all prior evidence

I honestly think that somewhere this enquiry needs to drill down into much deeper cultural issues and that is how women are treated as second class citizens by the NHS. The outcome for women in most areas of medicine is worse than for men and maternity services look to be the worst of the lot. If NHS trusts can write maternity policies without using the word woman then I believe this indicates a deep seated misogyny underlying all aspects of care.

You're right @FarriersGirl that we do need to drill down.

One of the often-cited areas of concern is the number of black women who die in & around birth. While this is true, it serves no one to lump all black women together as though they are one homogenous group. We currently have many immigrants entering the UK and many of the women will come from countries where ante natal care scarcely exists, if it exists at all. They will obviously be high risk. Many will have pre-existing, untreated non-pregnancy related conditions that impact their health. And so on. These are not the same as women from the established Caribbean heritage population, born & brought up here who understand the system: many actually working in the NHS. Not saying it's perfect for them either.

I agree with a pp - let's not see this in isolation. Women's health is way down the list of priorities in healthcare and maternity services a subset of that.

I agree. We don't need another inquiry, we need action.

"A lack of basic compassion" accompanied by a lack of accountability sums up the whole of the NHS for me.

I have yet to see any inquiry change that and I have no hope this one will either.

Agreed.

This 100%. With midwife led care there is often delay in emergency Caesareans etc as they concentrate too much on women having a 'natural' birth,. We need to return to doctor led care.