After a number of high-profile cases and rising medical negligence claims, the health and social care secretary has ordered a national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services.
A national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services has been ordered by health and social care secretary Wes Streeting to drive urgent improvements to care and safety.
The investigation will look at the worst-performing services in the country, but also across the entire maternity system, bringing together the findings of past reviews into one national set of actions.
The investigation will consist of two parts. The first will investigate up to ten of the most concerning maternity and neonatal units. These have not yet been made public, but are understood to include University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The second will undertake a system-wide look at maternity and neonatal care, bringing together lessons from past inquiries to create one clear, national set of actions to improve care across every NHS maternity service.
An anti-discrimination programme to tackle inequalities in care for Black, Asian and other underserved communities is also planned.
The investigation will begin this summer and report back by the end of the year.
The government is also to establish a national maternity and neonatal task force, chaired by Streeting – and to be made up of a panel of experts and bereaved families.
“Maternity care should be the litmus test by which this government is judged on patient safety, and I will do everything in my power to ensure no family has to suffer like this again,” said Streeting.
Maternity-related claims
The plan, announced at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) World Congress, comes as both the number and severity of cases of failures in maternity services have been significant this year. Indeed, Healthcare Today will be publishing deep dives into cases at Nottingham, Leeds and Manchester in the coming weeks.
“Our clients have been telling us for years that maternity services are in crisis. Independent reports have highlighted alarming failures in a number of NHS Trusts that have been deemed to be putting the lives of mothers and their babies at risk,” said Suzanne White, head of medical negligence at Leigh Day.
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.
As John Tingle, associate professor of law at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, told Healthcare Today earlier this week, “maternity-related claims now account for around half the total cost of clinical negligence in the NHS”.
Although details of the investigation and task force are thin – Streeting has said that the team, the terms of reference and how it will work still need to be worked out – they have been broadly welcomed.
Clea Harmer, chief executive of baby loss charity Sands called the investigation “much-needed and long-overdue” and Vicki Robinson, chief executive of the Miscarriage Association, said she hoped the investigation would lead “to meaningful learning, and to better, more compassionate care for anyone experiencing pregnancy loss in the future”.
