Transparency, standards and a new commissioner – but does the maternity review go far enough?

The findings of Lady Amos’ review into maternity and neonatal services across England, which state the system is ultimately no longer fit for purpose, are unsurprising. The systemic failures and inadequacies of these services have been uncovered in several reports already, including Donna Ockenden’s review of the “toxic” Nottingham NHS trust published last week. But what this report does offer are a set of recommendations for the government to implement. Amos states that if they were to be delivered in full then “the overall safety and quality of maternity and neonatal care in England will be materially and sustainably improved”. But how far do these recommendations go, and what will it take for them to be implemented? A recurring theme across multiple maternity investigations has been the experience of bereaved and traumatised families being left in the dark, often having to fight for years to uncover the truth about what went wrong in their maternity and neonatal care. Many reviews have identified a “cover-up culture” within NHS trusts, where failures were minimised or concealed, leaving families without answers and undermining accountability. One of the clearest examples is the case of Sarah and Jack Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016. Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust initially told the parents Harriet’s death had been unavoidable. …