The UK “doesn’t have the luxury of waiting six months” for an action plan for maternity care, a senior midwife has warned, after publishing several damning enquiries that revealed dismissive attitudes to women which contributed to avoidable deaths.
Baroness Valerie Amos, who led the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, made a key request for a neonatal and maternity commissioner and a national taskforce, after exposing repeated failures in NHS care. The government is now due to publish a comprehensive National Action Plan in December to overhaul services.
But Donna Ockenden, who led the Independent Review of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, has argued the government shouldn’t be waiting six months to act.
Speaking in a Health and Social Care Committee on Wednesday she said: “We don’t have the luxury of six months. How long does it take once the action plan is out to then get that implemented?
“If we were to look at how many midwives will hang up their uniforms in the next six months, how many doctors will decide they can’t do this anymore, and how much harm potentially could be caused, I would say we do not have six months to create an action plan.”
Source: The Independent, 15 July 2026
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