The head of an investigation into maternity care in England has said victims of maternity failings received “unacceptable care”.
Baroness Amos, who is chairing a review into maternity provision, has said that changes within services have been too slow despite being necessary and urgent.
Women had felt blamed for their babies’ deaths, while others suffered from a lack of empathy, care or apology when things had gone wrong. Poor and black mothers were often at the end of discriminatory services.
Speaking about the report on Tuesday, Baroness Amos said: “Given that these harms continue to be done, given that babies continue to die, given that this is happening across the country … are there things that we should be doing to standardise the level of care across different trusts? Yes.”
She said she had heard stories of women who are “being left in… rooms for hours on end”, adding: “women are bleeding out in bathrooms”.
The report also shows that the NHS has recorded 748 recommendations relating to maternity and neonatal care in the past decade.
But she stressed that she was looking into the worst cases. “There is lots of good care out there” and many trusts are doing a “good job”, she said.
Baroness Amos, who is leading the national maternity and neonatal investigation (NMNI), said she was “confident that change will happen” as a result of her review and her final report will be published in June.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who set up the review, said “the systemic failures causing preventable tragedies cannot be ignored”.
The report comes amid continued uncertainty about the fate of Liverpool Women’s Hospital, which according to campaigners continues to face chronic underfunding.
Sarah Woolley, bakers’ union BFAWU general secretary, who attended the march in September, said at the time: “ The threat to Liverpool Women’s hospital is not an isolated issue, although it’s a grave one for Liverpool, it’s part of a deliberate pattern of NHS cuts.
“ We have got to say loud and clear. Women’s health is not expendable. Maternity, neonatal care, gynaecology – these are not luxuries.”
Liverpool Women’s Hospital was not included as one of the 14 maternity units investigated by Baroness Amos’ inquiry. In response to that decision, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside Kim Johnson said: “The government decided to investigate 14 maternity units across our country and the women’s hospital was not included.
“So the arguments they’re making to move the hospital, to remove the services are just a red herring.
“Fourteen years of austerity and underfunding to our public services has brought our service to its knees.”
