Doctors back Independent campaign on maternity safety as families support inquiry calls

Head of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says maternity staff training is ‘vital to ensure team members have the necessary skills, competencies and knowledge to provide good quality care’, Shaun Lintern reports

The maternity safety training fund delivered training to more than 30,000 NHS staff before being halted after just one year (Getty)

Leading maternity doctors have backed The Independent’s call for maternity safety training to be reinstated by the government following the Shrewsbury maternity scandal.

The president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) – the leading body for maternity doctors in the UK – lent his weight to the campaign to improve the training of NHS staff, and said that doctors and midwives should train together to help save the lives of mothers and babies.

The Independent has joined with the charity Baby Lifeline to call on the government to reinstate the maternity safety training fund, which delivered training to more than 30,000 NHS staff before being axed after just one year.

Dr Edward Morris, president of RCOG said: “The RCOG is calling for the reinstatement of the maternity safety training fund to provide effective multi-professional training for healthcare professionals who work as part of maternity care teams. This fund should be sufficiently resourced to support units providing training for teams to improve care for women and families in all maternity settings.”

He added that bringing all maternity staff together in training is “vital to ensure team members have the necessary skills, competencies and knowledge to provide good quality care”.

The RCOG’s backing comes after former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the case for a wider independent investigation into maternity safety was becoming “unanswerable” following repeated care failures.

The latest incident reports from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, which is facing an investigation into 900 maternity incidents stretching over 40 years, revealed eight at the trust in December, including two in maternity.

One incident was linked to the monitoring of a mother after a caesarean section, while the second was a failure to follow guidelines after an ultrasound scan. The trust said staff had subsequently been sent a reminder about how to respond to an abnormal scan.

Other incidents included an A&E death following a failure to monitor a patient. An agency nurse was suspended from working at the trust and an investigation has been started.

Three other incidents related to delays in cancer treatment and diagnosis.

Families from Shrewsbury welcomed Mr Hunt’s call for a national inquiry.

Kayleigh Griffiths, whose daughter Pippa died after midwives failed to recognise an infection after birth, said: “I think it’s a great idea. It gives others, who have watched Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and East Kent unfold, the chance to raise their own questions and concerns. I thought there would be more ‘scandals’ coming through, but this means they will all be looked at.

“It is a huge step forward for patient safety, learning from avoidable deaths and harm. It is one where the NHS can learn a great deal from those who have had to fight for justice and for accountability and is a chance to work together to move forward.”

Rhiannon Davies, whose baby Kate died in 2009 as a result of avoidable errors at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, said: “It’s a shame Jeremy Hunt didn’t heed the warnings I wrote to him about repeatedly, which I reiterated the two times I met him.

“Shame on him and everyone else implicated in every single one of these tragedies, which families like Kate’s and Pippa’s have been doggedly and heroically highlighting over and over and over again to selfish, disinterested, culpable people.”

The parents of Harry Richford, who died as a result of neglect in 2017 at East Kent Hospitals University Trust, where 138 babies suffered brain injuries during birth, said they support a national inquiry but also believe that there needs to be a local public inquiry into poor care at East Kent.

Tom and Sarah Richford said: “We are pleased Jeremy Hunt is calling for a national inquiry into maternity safety and that he is backing the call for maternity safety training to be reinstated.

“We are still adamant that an independent public inquiry into East Kent maternity services is a priority and urgently required to avoid more babies losing their lives from preventable causes. We believe that an East Kent inquiry is required immediately.”