Maternity review “cannot be a substitute for action” with women and babies dying says Jess Brown-Fuller

It has been announced that 14 NHS trusts, including University Hospitals Sussex, will have their maternity and neonatal services examined.

The government has ordered an urgent review into maternity services nationwide, following a series of independent investigations into various trusts which identified failings in maternity and neonatal care. The review, to be led by Baroness Valerie Amos, aims to deliver an initial set of recommendations by December this year.

Jess in Parliament

Responding to the announcement, Liberal Democrat Hospitals and Primary Care spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller MP said:

“It is a national scandal that countless mothers are being failed by unsafe maternity services. The consequences are deadly, with women and babies dying, and families put through unimaginable trauma.

“Women, doctors and midwives feel trapped in a system where nothing changes and the same errors are repeated review after review.

“We welcome the Government’s acknowledgement that the crisis in our maternity units cannot be ignored any longer but their review goes nowhere near far enough. There needs to be a statutory national inquiry to lay out the issues facing wards across the country.

“Any review cannot be a substitute for action, this is a problem that is already upon us and affects people everyday. The Government needs to reverse their cuts to key maternity improvement funding and to implement all of the actions from the Ockenden Review immediately.”