Shocking national maternity report must be a 'watershed moment' says leader of Shropshire inquiry
A senior midwife who led the inquiry into Shropshire's shocking maternity scandal says a damning report on services across the country must be "a watershed moment".
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Today the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned that action is needed to "to prevent harm in maternity services becoming ‘normalised'".
The warning came as the CQC has been carrying out a programme of inspections at maternity units across the country since 2021.
It said that of 131 looked at in the most recent raft of reviews, nearly 50 per cent either 'require improvement' or were found to be 'inadequate'.
Shockingly only 35 per cent were rated good for ‘safety’, with 47 per cent requiring improvement, and 18 per cent inadequate.
In a damning report the CQC said that "sadly" failings are not "isolated to just a handful of individual trusts".
Senior midwife Donna Ockenden, who led the inquiry into the country's biggest maternity scandal at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), said the CQC's report must be a watershed moment for maternity in the UK.
She also spoke of frustration that national recommendations in her 2022 report into the SaTH scandal had not been fully implemented – despite assurances from a previous government.
