The Care Quality Commission have released a report revealing failings with maternity care nationwide. In 2020 investigations into maternity units in Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent found that negligent care had resulted in the death and severe injury of newborns. A newer report from the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust found that the deaths of more than 150 babies involved care issues. These new findings suggest that these are not isolated incidents and that similar stories are found in maternity wards across the country. Shockingly they found that in the 131 locations that were covered in their report, almost half were identified as being substandard in their practice.
The report found many issues with maternity care that had been persistent for years. They found there to be:
- Insufficient training in key areas such as heart rate monitoring.
- Understaffing leading to inexperienced nurses filling in the gaps where experienced ones should be.
- Poorly maintained hospital buildings leading to difficulties in preventing infection.
- Inconsistencies in triaging between Trusts leading to patients with serious symptoms not receiving timely enough care.
- Women from marginalised groups experiencing discrimination and receiving worse care and worse outcomes.
- Poor leadership not implementing the changes needed to improve quality of care.
Speaking at an Institute for Public Policy Research event, Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the report’s findings as a ‘cause for national shame’ and that the NHS is at ‘risk of disaster.’
A key theme of the report is how the lack of care is impacting the mental health of women. They reported many women describing their mental health suffering during and after pregnancy, which is evidenced by over 4% of women developing post-traumatic stress disorder after giving birth. The report found that a lack of incident reporting exacerbated this, as not only did it deprive the NHS an opportunity to learn and improve from its mistakes, but it also robbed women of their right to understand what went wrong with their care and to know that there are steps in place to ensure that what happened to them will not happen to anyone else. The report goes on to say that women from marginalised groups are especially hard hit by this as they feel that their voices and opinions are more often overlooked by staff.
The report called for nationwide changes to ensure that the NHS does not continue to fail women. Part of this was a greater role of women in the incident review process such as the right to attend any review panel. They also highlighted what good practices focused on, such as mental health support, awareness and inclusion of ethnic and cultural diversity, and effective communication. Hopefully this report serves to highlight issues and will bring about meaningful change.
If you believe that you or your child have suffered as a result of negligent maternity care, contact our experienced Medical Negligence team. You can contact us for a FREE initial consultation with one of our legal experts.
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