Maternity services in England need urgent improvement and at least £ 200million more to reduce unnecessary deaths, MPs report | UK News

Maternity care in England needs to be improved, according to a report by MPs – and more needs to be done to reduce the number of deaths among babies and mothers.

The health and social services select committee says urgent action is needed to address staff shortages and a “culture of blame” that prevents mistakes from being admitted and learning from them.

He has heard evidence that maternity services are not improving fast enough following a damning investigation in 2015 which found that a “deadly mix” of failures at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has resulted in the deaths of 11 babies and a mother.

A separate investigation into the maternity ward at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospitals Trust is underway, examining over 1,800 serious cases.

Last month, the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust was fined £ 733,000 for serious failures that led to the death of baby Harry Richford in 2017 at QEQM Hospital in Margate.

The chairman of the committee, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said that “although the majority of NHS births are completely safe, failures in maternity services can have devastating results for affected families.”

He added: “Despite a number of high-profile incidents, improvements in maternity safety are still not happening quickly enough. Although the NHS deserves credit for significantly reducing infant deaths and stillbirths, around 1,000 more babies would live each year if our maternity services were as safe as Sweden. “

The report recommends that the annual budget for maternity care in England be increased from at least £ 200million to £ 350million with immediate effect.

Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton have campaigned for improvements since their daughter Kate died in 2009 following preventable mistakes during childbirth.

“The recommendation for the important …