Health Secretary James Murray in the Commons (Image: PA)
Maternity failures in the NHS are “on a scale that shames our society”, the Health Secretary has admitted.
James Murray said he was “haunted” by maternity failures following the release of shocking findings in a national maternity and neonatal investigation.
A “rapid review” into maternity care, led by Baroness Valerie Amos, concluded families have suffered from repeated failures in NHS care.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Murray said: “The NHS is still failing women, babies and their families on a scale that shames our society.
“Bereaved and harmed families are hearing once again the unbearably painful and distressing consequences of the opportunities that have been missed to put things right.”
The report comes less than a week after an inquiry into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, found more than 500 mothers and babies suffered avoidable harm or died due to “deeply embedded systemic failures” at the “toxic” hospital trust.
Mr Murray said: “As I stand here today, I think of how they must be feeling.”
“I know from meeting some of the Nottingham families that their unwavering determination is accompanied by a sense of exhaustion, a sense that however many times they have told their stories, however hard they have campaigned for justice and accountability, however strongly they afford to stop what happened to them from happening to others, hardly anything has changed.”
Mr Murray said that Baroness Amos’s rapid review of maternity care “paints a bleak picture of failings at every stage”.
Calling this a“watershed moment”, the Cabinet Minister said: “Culture is where so much of the responsibility lies. That culture is the most deep-rooted cause of the failures we have seen, and the most fundamental thing we must change.”
Mr Murray added: “We will dismantle toxic dynamics, boost staff morale, and support better teamwork between midwives, doctors, and other clinicians.
“We need not only the right policies, procedures, and processes to be in place, but also a fundamental reset in the culture of a service that too often puts the desire to protect itself above the duty to protect women and babies.
“That culture change must come from the top. It is time that trust leaders, executives, and senior clinicians pay attention to what is happening on their watch. Put professional tribalism aside, lose the bunker mentality when things go wrong, and make sure the safety of women and babies always comes first.
“This has to be a watershed moment. We must break the cycle of recommendations sitting on a shelf gathering dust.”