Call for public national database to improve maternity safety across NHS trusts

Posted: 08/10/2020

Mothers-to-be do not generally seek maternity care in a hospital setting because they are ill – it is because they want to try and ensure the safe delivery of their babies.

Sadly, over the last few years, there have been several reports concerning poor maternity care in NHS hospitals, most notably at hospitals that are the responsibility of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and East Kent NHS Trust, where failings in care have led to significant harm and in some cases, death, for both babies and their mothers.

This situation is a tragedy for all involved and more must be done to try and prevent such failings in the future. Catastrophic injuries sustained during birth give rise to significant needs for life, impacting the children concerned, their families and the public purse. Avoidable deaths cause untold heartache.

Various initiatives have been proposed over the last few years, including independent reviews by the Heathcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB). However, whilst such reports may identify where care has fallen short, it is felt that a national and public approach is required to help improve maternity safety in the NHS as a whole. APIL, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, is pushing for a national, public database of recommendations to ensure that lessons are learnt at a national level and that safety recommendations are implemented by hospital trusts. Sam Elsby, the president of APIL, has stated: “Putting all the information on public record, in one accessible place, provides transparency and accountability. Everyone will be able to see whether or not recommendations have been implemented by individual NHS trusts and where the same failures are being repeated”. The benefits of such an approach would be to identify systemic failings and to try and ensure that they do not persist within the NHS.

No amount of money can compensate for devastating, birth-related injuries and anything that can be done to reduce future harm because of failings in maternity care would be welcome.

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