| Following yesterday’s publication of the report of the Independent Investigation into East Kent Maternity Services, maternity safety charity Baby Lifeline is calling for urgent UK-wide action to prevent further avoidable harm to mothers, birthing people and babies. The East Kent report, led Dr Bill Kirkup, Honorary President of Baby Lifeline, was the latest in a series of independent investigations into NHS Trusts’ maternity services across the country (see ‘The Investigations’, below). Baby Lifeline is arguing that the problems identified through these investigations – around a long-term failure to invest in the maternity workforce, which is compounded by the lack of workforce planning, poor workplace culture, a lack of investment in training, and the failure to listen to women, birthing people and families – exist within many NHS maternity services across the UK. Sara Ledger, Head of Research and Development at Baby Lifeline, said: “Baby Lifeline is calling for families, midwives, obstetricians, neonatologists, obstetric anaesthetists, and all who care about safety in our maternity services, to come together and join us in saying, ‘Enough is enough’ – it’s time to put learning into action to improve maternity services for all. “The independent investigations into maternity services at Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, and now East Kent, followed years of tireless campaigning by the bereaved families of babies whose injuries and deaths could have been avoided. Their findings reflect problems present within many other maternity services, and they must not be viewed in isolation. “At our National Maternity Safety Conference, held in Birmingham just last month, frontline maternity team members from across the country reflected on the ways in which the problems identified in midwife Donna Ockenden‘s report into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, published in March, also occurred within their own workplaces. “As another independent review – into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust – gathers pace, Baby Lifeline is arguing that, while investigations into individual Trusts are needed to provide support for the teams, families, and communities involved, we now have enough stringent recommendations, and sufficient clarity around immediate and essential actions, to start making well-informed improvements to maternity services across the UK. “This work has to begin with the appropriate funding being provided for maternity services on an ongoing basis. The chronic underfunding of maternity services has led to teams being burnt out. Morale is low, and staff retention is poor. “Improving maternity safety for all must also involve families’ concerns being listened to without them needing to fight to be heard, and with all maternity services being tuned into the information and data that can enable them to highlight problems before harm occurs. Meanwhile, improved resource to allow access to high quality and regular team training to all midwives and obstetricians should be assured nationally, as a matter of urgency.” James Titcombe, Senior Patient Safety and Policy Consultant at Baby Lifeline, and a member of the charity’s Family Voices Group, said: “Baby Lifeline’s Family Voice Group consists of people whose personal experiences of maternity services include the worst possible outcomes imaginable. The message from this group, and from other families, is loud and clear: the themes in their individual cases are being repeated time and time again, as are the findings of the major investigations into maternity services. “Enough is enough. We simply can’t continue the way we have done in the past. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the national approach to maternity safety improvement, which must include a government commitment on funding and workforce strategy.” The investigations: Baby Lifeline’s Honorary President, midwife Donna Ockenden, led the review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, which was published in March this year. In September 2022, she was tasked with leading an Independent Review into Maternity Services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Meanwhile, Dr Bill Kirkup, also a Baby Lifeline Honorary President, chaired the independent investigation into the maternity and neonatal services provided by East Kent University NHS Foundation Trust, the findings of which were published yesterday (Wednesday 19 October 2022). He previously led ‘The Morecambe Bay Investigation’ into maternity and neonatal services in University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, published in 2015. |
