New maternity care report must be ‘final wake-up call’, says Tommy’s CEO

A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned there is a danger of ‘normalising’ poor care and preventable harm across NHS maternity services in England.

The CQC findings follow an inspection of 131 maternity units between August 2022 and December 2023.

Just under half (48%) were rated as requiring improvement or inadequate overall. Safety standards were found to be inadequate at 18% of units and in need of improvement at 47%.

Some were assessed as not fit for purpose, as they lacked space and facilities and, in a small number of cases, appropriate levels of potentially life-saving equipment.

The CQC also found significant variation in the way trusts operated in key areas such as learning from incidents and assessing women at triage to identify any risks.

Based on its findings, CQC has made recommendations for NHS trusts, the wider system and national bodies to support vital improvements.

Nicola Wise, CQC’s Director of Secondary and Specialist Care, said the latest inspection programme underlined the need for ‘urgent action’.

“We cannot allow an acceptance of shortfalls that are not tolerated in other services. Collectively, we must do more as a healthcare system.  

“This starts with a robust focus on safety to ensure that poor care and preventable harm do not become normalised, and that staff are supported to deliver the high-quality care they want to provide for mothers and babies today and in the future.”

Kath Abrahams, Chief Executive of Tommy’s, said: 

“It is utterly unacceptable to have reached a point where the CQC feels it must warn against ‘normalising’ poor maternity care.

“This must be a final wake-up call to all of those overseeing a system that is failing to meet the needs of far too many women and birthing people, despite the best efforts of hardworking NHS staff.

“Report after report highlights the same issues, and too many Trusts are making the same mistakes without learning from those incidents.

“We need to bring together those who truly understand the problems, including staff and families, to develop real and effective solutions and make sure nationally-agreed standards of care are being followed.”

The inspection programme found significant differences in the way trusts collect and use information to help reduce health inequalities. At some trusts, both staff and people using the service experienced discrimination because of their ethnic background, or issues associated with having English as a second language.  

Communication with families was not always good enough, with more work required to ensure all women and birthing people are given the information they need to make informed decisions and consent to treatment.