‘We can’t go on like this’: demand for NHS maternity overhaul

of National maternity and newborn screening, External It was set up last summer by then health secretary Wes Streeting.

The aim was to produce a report on reform across the UK after a series of maternity scandals had eroded the trust of many families in the NHS.

Baroness Amos and her team visited 12 NHS trusts, listening to more than 450 families to understand what changes are needed.

A key failure they identified was a refusal to listen to women and families, leading to poor outcomes. A major disparity in health care was the lack of a consistent standard of care.

The system is “fragmented, over-complicated and too slow to learn and improve,” Baroness Amos said in her report.

One of the immediate measures being encouraged at maternity units is to improve their specialist services, which Baroness Amos described as “increasingly becoming maternity A&E services”.

As part of this, midwives should be committed to answering calls and providing timely advice, while women should be given face-to-face appointments if they are concerned. If these changes are made, the report says, “lives will be saved and harm will be reduced.”

In the meantime, racism and discrimination should be seen as a critical security issue, research that needs urgent intervention, including comprehensive data collection on unequal outcomes that will translate to the board level as patterns emerge.

Baroness Amos has accepted a call for a legal public inquiry to compel senior officials at fire-ravaged hospital trusts to give evidence. But she is not in favor of such a move.

“Legitimate public inquiries take a very, very long time,” she told the BBC.

“From the work I’ve done and the conversations I’ve had with my family, I don’t see the need for a statutory public inquiry at this time, but that’s not a decision I’m making.”