Strengthening open disclosure in maternity services in the English NHS: the DISCERN realist evaluation study (August 2024)

Summary

There is a policy drive in NHS maternity services to improve open disclosure with harmed families and limited information on how better practice can be achieved.

The objectives of this study, published in Health and Social Care Delivery Research, were to identify critical factors for improving open disclosure from the perspectives of families, doctors, midwives and services and to produce actionable evidence for service improvement.

Authors concluded:

"We identify the need for service-wide systems to ensure that injured families are positioned at the centre of post-incident events, ensure appropriate training and post-incident care of clinicians, and foster ongoing engagement with families beyond the individual efforts made by some clinicians for some families. The need for legislative revisions to promote openness with families across NHS organisations, and wider changes in organisational family engagement practices, is indicated. Examination of how far the study’s findings apply to different English maternity services, and a wider rethinking of how family diversity can be encouraged in maternity services research."

Content