Campaigners Have Questioned The Health Secretary’s Commitment To Maternity Safety

Helen Wilkinson

Reading time: 4 minutes

Campaigners have questioned Wes Streeting (Health Secretary)’s commitment to maternity safety after watering down funding levels to just £2m of the almost £100m that was invested.

Following the publication of an interim report into the poor care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, almost £100m annually was invested into improving maternity safety, however changes by the Department of Health mean that just £2m of the funding is only now guaranteed to be spent on maternity care this year.

The Royal College of Midwives described the funding decision as taking “a wrecking ball” to maternity safety.

Rhiannon Davies, who lost her daughter due to poor care at the trust, called the decision “an absolute betrayal by Wes Streeting”.

The review into maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, published in 2022, found that at least 201 babies and nine mothers could have survived with better care.

Following the publication of an interim report, in March 2021, NHS England said it would increase spending on maternity care by £95m a year.

At the time, it said the money would be used to hire as many as 1,000 midwives and around 80 consultant obstetricians.

Some of the money was also to be spent on allowing consultants and midwives to train together – a key recommendation of the initial report, by senior midwife Donna Ockenden – as well as allocating money for the NHS to recruit from overseas.

But analysis of NHS funding for this year, showed that just £2m of the £95m was to be ringfenced for 2025/26.

The rest of the money will be given to the 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) that decide how the health service funding is allocated locally across England.

Ms Ockenden responded on social media:

How has this happened? So disappointed. Talking to colleagues across perinatal services, the sense of disappointment is profound.”

Some maternity staff have labelled the change as disastrous, fearing that taking away the funding protection will mean maternity budgets will be cut.

A senior midwife said:

Removing the ringfencing will take us back years,”

The Royal College of Midwives said it was “utterly shocked” by Streeting’s decision, adding it was “short-sighted” and “utterly unacceptable“.

Gill Walton, Chief Executive, said:

“These budget cuts… will rip the heart out of any moves to improve maternity safety.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said maternity care remained a top priority for the health service.

Comment

Too many women are not receiving the safe, compassionate maternity care they deserve, and taking away imperative funding will mean maternity budgets will be cut, which will impact improving maternity safety, which is desperately needed.

Nelsons have a specialist clinical negligence team, who have significant experience in representing families who have suffered injury and loss as a result of poor maternity care.

How can we help?Maternity Safety Funding

Helen Wilkinson is a Paralegal in our expert Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.

If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Helen or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.

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