NHS maternity failures ‘on a scale that shames our society’ | Politics | News

The Health Secretary has admitted NHS birth failures are “shameful to our society”.

James Murray said he was “haunted” by failures in motherhood after shocking findings emerged in a national maternity and newborn survey.

A “rapid review” of maternity care led by Baroness Valerie Amos concluded that families were suffering from repeated failures in NHS care.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Murray said: “The NHS is still failing women, babies and their families to a degree that puts our society to shame.

“Once again, grieving and damaged families are hearing the excruciatingly painful and distressing consequences of missed opportunities to make things right.”

The report comes less than a week after an investigation into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, found more than 500 mothers and babies suffered preventable harm or died due to “deep-seated systemic failures” at the “toxic” hospital trust.

Mr Murray said: “As I stand here today, I think about how they must feel.”

“When I meet some of the Nottingham families, I know that their unwavering determination is accompanied by a sense of exhaustion, a sense that no matter how much they tell their stories, no matter how hard they campaign for justice and accountability, no matter how strongly they dare to prevent what happened to them from happening to anyone else, almost nothing changes.”

Mr Murray said Baroness Amos’s rapid review of maternity care “paints a bleak picture of failures at every stage”.

Describing it as a “watershed moment”, the Cabinet Minister said: “A huge part of the responsibility lies with culture. That culture is the root cause of the failures we see and the most fundamental thing we need to change.”

Mr Murray added: “We will eliminate toxic dynamics, boost staff morale and support better teamwork between midwives, doctors and other clinicians.

“Not only do we need the right policies, procedures and processes in place, we also need a fundamental reset in the culture of a service that puts its desire to protect itself above its duty to protect women and babies.

“This culture change must come from the top. It is now time for trust leaders, managers and senior clinicians to pay attention to what is happening under their care. Put professional tribalism aside, abandon the shelter mentality when things go wrong and ensure the safety of women and babies always comes first.”

“This must be a turning point. We must break the cycle of recommendations sitting on the shelf gathering dust.”