Wes Streeting announces investigation into NHS maternity services
Speaking in east London, the health secretary said the new rapid review, which will report by Christmas, was intended to provide truth to families suffering harm, as well as drive urgent improvements to care and safety.
He told the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) conference: 'For the past year, I have been meeting bereaved families from across the country who have lost babies or suffered serious harm during what should have been the most joyful time in their lives.
• 'After my baby died, NHS colleagues mocked me'
'What they have experienced is devastating — deeply painful stories of trauma, loss, and a lack of basic compassion — caused by failures in NHS maternity care that should never have happened. Their bravery in speaking out has made it clear: we must act — and we must act now.'
He pointed to 'appalling scandals' in the past 15 years in Shrewsbury, Telford, East Kent, and Nottingham.
Officials at the Department of Health and Social Care said the investigation would examine the entire maternity system, including an urgent review into the worst-performing services.
The department is also launching a 'national maternity and neonatal taskforce' to be chaired by the health secretary.
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Streeting said giving birth carried risk but 'that risk is considerably higher than it should be because of the state of the crisis in our maternity and neonatal services'.
Despite previous government initiatives, inequalities in maternal and neonatal outcomes have become 'more visible, not less', he said, adding that the rate of late maternal deaths has been consistently rising.
He said: 'Babies of black ethnicity are twice as likely to be stillborn than babies of white ethnicity, and black women are still two to three times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after birth than white women. Tragically, that gap is closing slightly, but partly because more white women are dying in childbirth.'
'It's clear something is going wrong,' Streeting continued. '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.'
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