The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates all health and social care services in England.
The CQC have recently reviewed 131 maternity units across the NHS and published a report with their findings.
The report highlights key issues that are continuing to impact quality and safety in maternity units.
Findings
The report found that failings uncovered by Donna Ockenden and Dr Bill Kirkup following their reviews of East Kent and Shrewsbury and Telford were not isolated and many of the factors apparent at those Trusts are more widespread.
Overall, 48% of maternity units were rated as inadequate, and on the sole issue of safety, 65% were judged to be failing.
The report identified the following issues that are affecting the quality of care that women and babies receive:
- Bad leadership and management creating blame cultures and low morale.
- Poor management of incidents and limited learning when things go wrong.
- Failures to ensure safe and timely assessment at triage.
- Staffing shortages, with graduate nurses taking on tasks better suited to more senior midwives and doctors.
- Chronic issues around recruitment and retention of the maternity workforce.
- Maternity units not being fit for purpose, lacking the facilities and space and occasionally potentially life-saving equipment.
- Delays to emergency caesarean sections because operating theatres were unavailable.
- Evidence of discrimination against people belonging to ethnic minorities, including a lack of support for women whose first language was not English.
- Lack of communication with women and their families.
CQC specialist care director Nicola Wise has warned maternity care needs “urgent reform” as preventable harm was at risk of becoming “normalised”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting commented:
“These findings are cause for national shame.
Women deserve better – childbirth should not be something they fear or look back on with trauma.”
Mr Streeting previously commented that concerns over maternity care keep him awake at night:
“When it comes to the crisis in our maternity services across the country, it is one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night worrying about the quality of care being delivered today at the risk of disaster greeting women in labour tomorrow.”
Comment
The CQC report is especially difficult to read following the major scandals in Shrewsbury, East Kent, and Nottingham.
It sadly confirms what most people suspected – that poor maternity care is widespread across the NHS.
If concerns over the state of England’s maternity units keep the health secretary awake at night, imagine how those who give birth in inadequate maternity units must feel.
It is understandable that some changes, such as the reported blame culture, will take time to happen, however, the issues that can be addressed now, such as providing extra staff and resources, need to be resolved as a matter of urgency.
The failure to protect mothers and babies from avoidable harm cannot continue and we must keep this important matter under the spotlight until changes are made.
How can Nelsons help
Georgina Sheppard is a Trainee Solicitor in our expert Medical Negligence team, which is ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, Legal 500.
At Nelsons, we have an experienced team of solicitors across our Derby, Leicester and Nottingham offices, who are always happy to discuss the circumstances of your claim and advise you on whether you are likely to be successful.
Please call 0800 024 1976 or contact us via our online form for more information.
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