Pregnant women 'ignored' before they lost babies, maternity review finds as families demand public inquiry
Chairwoman of the Commons' Health and Social Care Committee told LBC News "there's not very much in this report that we didn't already know"
The government will appoint the country’s first national maternity commissioner following a major review which found that women and babies have suffered repeated failings across NHS maternity services.
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The “rapid review”, which was led by Baroness Valerie Amos, revealed that women and families are too often "not listened to, heard or believed", with avoidable harm and lifelong trauma driven by poor care, racism, fragmented services and a lack of accountability.
The Amos review heard evidence from more than 450 families, received over 10,500 responses to a public call for evidence and gathered evidence from more than 9,000 NHS staff across 12 maternity units with poor safety records.
The recommendations of Lady Amos have been accepted by ministers, including creating an independent maternity commissioner to oversee improvements, as well as a national maternity action plan, which is set to be published in December.
However, bereaved families have criticised the review as insufficiently independent and have warned that it fails to explain why avoidable deaths continue, renewing calls for a full statutory public inquiry.
This comes less than a week after Donna Ockenden's inquiry, which found more than 500 mothers and babies suffered avoidable harm or died because of "deeply embedded systemic failures” at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
According to Lady Amos, the review revealed "heartbreaking cases" of an NHS maternity system where women were routinely ignored when raising concerns.
Several mothers described being dismissed with the phrase "it's just one of those things" despite suffering serious harm.
Others claim they were unable to give informed consent because of poor communication, while others reported experiencing pain during Caesarean sections because of inadequate anaesthesia.
The review also uncovered NHS staff working in unsafe environments, facing chronic workforce shortages, poor leadership and a culture in which employees were afraid of speaking up.
Lady Amos called for urgent reforms, including round-the-clock consultant obstetrician and anaesthetist cover on delivery units, national standards for maternity triage and a new right for families to request an independent investigation when they disagree with an NHS trust's findings.
She also urged that racism and discrimination be treated as critical patient safety issues, carrying stronger regulatory oversight of maternity services.
Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and chairwoman of the Commons' Health and Social Care Committee, told Simon Conway on LBC News: "There's not very much, frankly, in this report that we didn't already know.
"It talks about the, you know, tragic circumstances of families who find themselves at the mercy of a system that is outdated, that doesn't listen to their voice, that puts their wants and wishes secondary.
"You are listening to staff who say that they are burnt out, some working 24-hour shifts and then expected to make life and death decisions in a matter of seconds. It is a broken system, but that's not new.
"I think what I would welcome in this report that is a bit new is rather than having, you know, I think the 741 recommendations that have been made through various reviews over the years, and this one makes eight, so that in of itself is refreshing.
"But it is looking at what are the systemic issues that underlie all the failings that have gone before, and they did this by looking at a number of trusts across the country, including my own in Oxfordshire."
She added: "So I'll be challenging the government today, on whether they genuinely believe that £41 million, which in the context of the £27bn that has been spent on negligence claims and failings, over the last six years."