MP calls for action to improve national maternity services after CQC's damning findings
Maternity services must be a priority for the new Government in the wake of a damning national report, an MP has said.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned action is needed "to prevent harm in maternity services becoming ‘normalised’".
It comes as the watchdog has been completing its inspection programme of maternity units across the country.
It says 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.
Reacting to the report, the Liberal Democrats' new health spokesperson Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, has urged the new Government to make maternity care a key priority.
The report was published just days after a motion was passed at the Liberal Democrat party conference calling for national maternity ambitions to be expanded and enhanced in a bid to make the UK the safest place in the world to have a baby.
Mrs Morgan, who was yesterday announced as the new Lib Dem spokeswoman for Health and Social Care, spoke during the conference debate on the issue, having already worked on it in her role as chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Maternity.
The Liberal Democrat motion called on the UK Government to ensure that commitments made in the Workforce Plan are backed by adequate funding and include expansion of the wider maternity and neonatal workforce.
Mrs Morgan said: "The ongoing postcode lottery of maternity care must end. That means raising standards across the board and making sure that no mother or baby is put at unnecessary risk.
"Unsafe staffing levels and practices can have tragic consequences, as so many families here in Shropshire have experienced first hand.
"Despite several reviews and inquiries, this new CQC report makes clear that much more progress needs to be made.
"Improving maternity care must be a key priority for the new Government as it seeks to address the crisis in our healthcare system."
