Latest news with #OckendenReview
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
KATE WILLS: I'm pregnant and fearful. Every woman I know has a horror story about giving birth on the NHS
When I found out I was pregnant in January, after two miscarriages and a round of IVF, I was overwhelmed with delight . . . quickly followed by a state of anxiety, which has only increased with the size of my bump. Why? Because in three months' time I'll be having my baby at Homerton Hospital in east London, where in a recent online petition, the postnatal ward is described as 'an uncomfortable and distressing environment for new mothers'. Yesterday the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, launched a 'rapid national investigation' into 'systemic' failures in NHS maternity services in England, saying 'maternity units are failing, hospitals are failing, trusts are failing, regulators are failing'. But do we really need yet another inquiry? No, what women require now is action. The bad treatment women have experienced at my local hospital is sadly not an anomaly. In 2022, the Ockenden review found that urgent and sweeping changes are needed in all English hospitals to prevent avoidable baby deaths, stillbirths and neonatal brain damage. The damning report had been looking into one of the biggest scandals in the history of the NHS, where grim failures at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trusts between 2000 and 2019 led to 1,862 serious incidents including hundreds of baby deaths and an unusually high number of maternal deaths. Yet it seems very little has changed. In February, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust was fined £1.6 million after admitting it failed to provide safe care and treatment to three babies who died within months of one another. But it's not just the odd hospital. Last year a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, based on inspections of 131 maternity units, found that cases of women receiving poor care and being harmed in childbirth are in danger of becoming 'normalised'. Every woman I know has a traumatic horror story about giving birth in an NHS hospital. One friend had such a distressing labour – 40 hours, very little food, left in a pool of her own blood – she's decided she can't go through it again, even though she wanted a second child. Preparing to give birth should be a time of excitement and joy, not fear. When I had my daughter Blake in 2020, I – thankfully – had a relatively straightforward birth, though it was still the most physically traumatic event of my life. At one stage, I was covered in blood and vomit, lying in a brightly lit room filled with medics, as one of them pulled me apart with brute force. I still have flashbacks and I'm not surprised that roughly nine per cent of women experience postpartum PTSD. This time around, the cracks at my hospital have shown from the outset. My first 'booking in' appointment with a midwife was so bad, I made a complaint. I was given incorrect advice about the medications I was taking for my IVF. I was assured I'd never see him again, but ended up back in front of him last week. I've often waited more than an hour for my appointments. Some of the staff have been great, but they seem stressed and overworked to the point of exhaustion. Midwifery used to be a respected profession and women would often see just one midwife for the duration of their pregnancy and birth. Now a midwife's salary starts at £28,407, and they're leaving in droves. The Royal College of Midwives says there's an estimated shortfall of 2,500 full-time equivalent midwives in England alone. And I need all the help an expert midwife can give me. I'm 40 and it's an IVF pregnancy. I've been advised to have an induction but the thought has left me terrified – it can lead to more medical interventions and a longer stay in a maternity ward friends have described as 'being like one in the developing world'. I've looked at choosing another London hospital to give birth in, one which doesn't have such terrible reviews, but as my labour with my daughter was relatively short, I worry I wouldn't get there in time. So I'm trapped in an NHS system that I know may well put my – and my baby's – lives at risk. Wes Streeting commissioning yet another limp investigation feels like a waste of time. We know from the Ockenden review what would improve services: more midwives with better training, better pay for maternity staff, more support. Why not use the money being spent on this inquiry to fund maternity units? The Health Minister might say this investigation will be 'rapid', but it won't be rapid enough for me, or the millions of other women due to give birth this year in failing maternity units nationwide. All we can do is hope and pray for the best. These days it feels like the real miracle of childbirth is not just your bundle of joy, but getting through the experience unscathed.
Metro
21 hours ago
- Health
- Metro
Everything we know so far about the NHS maternity investigation
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced a major investigation into failures in NHS maternity care after meeting with families devastated by baby loss. The Department of Health said the rapid inquiry would expose the 'truth' for those who have suffered from systemic problems dating back more than 15 years. It comes after a series of independent reviews into local trusts that have exposed issues with leadership, safety concerns, and the failure to listen to women. The two-part national investigation, modelled on the highly critical Darzi report on the wider NHS, will report back to the Health Secretary by December this year. Streeting said: 'I know nobody wants better for women and babies than the thousands of NHS midwives, obstetricians, maternity and neonatal staff, and that the vast majority of births are safe and without incident, but it's clear something is going wrong. 'That's why I've ordered a rapid national investigation to make sure these families get the truth and the accountability they deserve, and ensure no parent or baby is ever let down again. Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sign up here. 'I want staff to come with us on this, to improve things for everyone.' He added that 'immediate steps' would be taken to allow greater intervention by Streeting and NHS England Chief Executive Sir Jim Mackey to 'hold failing services to account'. The Liberal Democrats accused the government of 'merely paying lip service to maternity safety' with the investigation. Lib Dem health spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said ministers were 'slashing ringfenced funding and allowing the Ockenden Review's recommendations to be kicked into the long grass'. The investigation will be split into two parts, with the first looking into up to 10 of the 'most concerning' maternity and neonatal units in England. More Trending They include Sussex, where nine babies died between 2021 and 2023. Their families, including four mothers who said they almost also lost their lives, called for a public inquiry in a letter last year. Leeds, Gloucester and Mid and South Essex will also be included in the first part of the investigation. The second part will then involve a system-wide look at how care can be improved across every NHS maternity service. Other areas of focus will include the inequalities faced by women from black, Asian and deprived backgrounds, as well as a lack of compassionate care and safety concerns. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: 200,000 people can now get weight loss jab Mounjaro from their GP MORE: Heatwave set to kill almost 600 people with amber health alerts urgently issued MORE: Urgent recall for cough syrup over risk of deadly food poisoning
