Poor NHS maternity care in danger of becoming normalised, regulator warns

Maternity services in England are so inadequate that cases of women receiving poor care and being harmed in childbirth are in danger of becoming “normalised”, the NHS regulator has said.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report based on inspections of 131 maternity units sets out an array of problems, adding to the sense of crisis that has enveloped an NHS service that cares for the 600,000 women a year who give birth and their babies.

The watchdog’s grim findings came as Wes Streeting, the health secretary, admitted he felt acute anxiety about “the risk of disaster greeting women in labour tomorrow”.

In its report, the CQC says problems in maternity care are so ingrained that:

• Some women, frustrated at facing such long delays in being assessed at triage, discharge themselves before they are seen.
• 65% of units are not safe for women to give birth in, 47% of trusts are rated as requiring improvement on safety and another 18% are rated as inadequate.
• Some hospitals do not record incidents that have resulted in serious harm.
• There is a widespread lack of staff and in some places a lack of potentially life-saving equipment.
• Hospitals do not always consider women’s suffering after receiving poor care.

Nicola Wise, the CQC’s director of secondary and specialist care, said: “We cannot allow an acceptance of shortfalls that are not tolerated in other services.”

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Source: The Guardian, 19 September 2024