Nick Triggle & Michael Buchanan BBC News Getty Images Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said “we must act now” as he announced a national investigation into maternity care in England. The “rapid” inquiry will urgently look at the worst-performing maternity and neonatal services in the country, including Leeds, Sussex, Gloucester, and Mid and South Essex. … Read more
Getty Images Divya Talwar & Sarah Bell BBC News Maternity services at two Leeds hospitals have been downgraded from “good” to “inadequate” by the healthcare regulator, because their failings posed “a significant risk” to women and babies. Concerns from staff and patients around quality of care and staffing levels were substantiated by the Care Quality … Read more
Andy Giddings BBC News, West Midlands BBC Donna Ockenden’s report in 2022 found serious failings in Shropshire’s maternity services A police investigation into maternity services at two hospitals has started interviewing current and former members of staff. West Mercia Police began the inquiry in June 2020, while a review by senior midwife Donna Ockenden was … Read more
Divya Talwar & Tammi Walker BBC Tassie Weaver says she was treated like “a hysterical woman” by a midwife When Tassie Weaver went into labour at full term, she thought she was hours away from holding her first child. But, by the time she was giving birth, she knew her son had died. Doctors had … Read more
The Supreme Court on Friday observed that maternity leave is integral to maternity benefits and reproductive rights are now recognised as part of several intersecting domains of international human rights law, setting aside a Madras High Court order which denied the facility to a government teacher who was awaiting the birth of her third child. … Read more
Tom Burgess BBC News, North East and Cumbria Niki Cotson More than 700 people have signed Niki’s petition to have the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust put into special measures A mum who says she has been left in chronic pain a year after giving birth has called for an NHS trust to be … Read more
Michael Buchanan Social affairs correspondent BBC Richard Stanton and Rhiannon Davies campaigned for a review into maternity services after their baby daughter died in 2009 Campaigners have questioned Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s commitment to maternity safety after his department watered down funding levels. Almost £100m was invested into improving maternity safety annually following the publication … Read more
Greig Watson BBC News, Nottingham PA Media Maternity services at the trust are at the centre of the largest inquiry of its kind in the NHS The healthcare watchdog has apologised over delays to the publication of its report into maternity services in Nottingham, which is subject of the largest inquiry of its kind in … Read more
Michael Buchanan Social Affairs Correspondent BBC By the entrance to Furness General Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness sits a sculpture of a moon with 11 stars. It is a memorial to the mother and babies who died unnecessarily due to poor care at the hospital between 2004 and 2013. Inscribed underneath is a short verse: “Forever in … Read more
Getty Images Many of the maternity failings at scandal-hit hospitals are being seen elsewhere, England’s NHS regulator says. Investigations into units in Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent found poor care may have contributed to babies dying or having life-changing injuries. But the Care Quality Commission said many of the problems were more widespread. Its … Read more