NHS Providers has called for maternity services to be sufficiently resourced to enable Trusts to implement long-term improvements and to reduce inequalities.
NHS Providers, the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services, has called for bold action from the government to support them in their ongoing efforts to improve the quality and safety of maternity services in England.
It is needed. Both the number and severity of cases of failures in maternity services have been significant this year. Families have called for an inquiry into the standard of maternity services in Leeds after at least 56 cases of stillbirths or neonatal deaths as well as two maternity deaths between January 2019 and July 2024; Nottingham NHS Trust was fined £1.6 million for baby deaths in February; and both Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital maternity unit and Royal Lancaster Infirmary have faced criticism for gross failure of basic medical care.
Most recently, Llais, an independent body which represents patients in Wales, has highlighted the need for continued cultural, clinical and leadership improvements in maternity care in Swansea Bay University Health Board.
“Too many women, babies and families are being let down,” said Lord Darzi in his report on the NHS in September last year.
Sands and Tommy’s Policy Unit points out that while everyone agrees that change is needed. “It is not clear that there is agreement on what that change looks like,” it said.
“For lasting progress, we first need to ensure there is a shared understanding of what a safe system looks like. This should be focussed on ensuring that everyone can benefit from best-practice care in line with national standards,” it said.
Deep-rooted problems
NHS Providers’ new report, sets out the worries of NHS Trusts about the quality and safety of care as demand rises amid reduced resources and the knock-on effect of deep-rooted problems in access and equality elsewhere in the health system.
“Improving maternity services is a vital step toward fixing our wider health system and provides a litmus test for addressing system-wide inequalities,” said Isabel Lawicka, director of policy and strategy at NHS Provider.
Trust leaders are recommending that maternity services are sufficiently resourced to enable Trusts to implement long-term, strategic improvements and targeted interventions aimed at reducing inequalities and that funding should be targeted at areas with higher rates of inequalities in access to enable greater focus on interventions to overcome barriers to access.
There should be national prioritisation and support for Trusts in tackling structural racism and unconscious bias in services. To help this, all national, regional and local policies to improve maternity services should be co-produced with women and above all there should be more joined-up care.
“Getting it right for the most vulnerable mothers and babies will be a measure of how successful the plan has been in creating real change and improving our national health and wellbeing,” said Lawicka.
