Victoria Vallance, the Director of the Care Quality Commission,
the independent regulator of social care in England has today
expressed that she is ‘worried' and
‘concerned' about the number of maternity units in
England that are failing to meet basic safety
standards.
The comments follow a BBC analysis of official statistics
published by the CQC which reveal that alarmingly, 7% of the 137
maternity units in England pose a high risk to their patients
whilst 48% require safety improvement. Although 62% of units were
found to have ‘good' safety ratings, no unit was found
to be ‘outstanding' for safety.
At Lanyon Bowdler, we represent families all over England and
Wales who have suffered due to failings in their maternity care and
we have previously provided comment on the maternity scandals that
have been identified at Morecombe Bay, East Kent, Nottingham and
Shrewsbury and Telford. The CQC's findings reveal that there
are far more maternity units giving rise to concern and what the
Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives has termed an
‘ongoing crisis in maternity services'.
Whilst the experience of most families on maternity units is
positive, when things go wrong, the consequences can be
catastrophic. It is therefore concerning that despite specific
problems being identified within maternity units which pose a risk
to patients, little improvement is being seen within maternity
units to reduce those risks.
Consistent problems are being identified across all services such as lack of staff training and failure to manage the risk of women who are deteriorating. Inadequate funding and staffing levels have been identified as root causes in many Trusts but despite plans for improvements and Government investment of £127 million to expand the NHS maternity workforce, on top of the £95 million per year being spent to boost maternity staff numbers, few changes have been seen in practice and the pace of improvements has been described by the CQC as ‘disappointing'.
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