The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme (MNSI) welcomes today’s publication of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) National Maternity Inspection Report. The recommendations made within call for:
- Consistent collection of demographic data to improve maternity outcomes for all women / birthing people
- Improved communication with women / birthing people and their families to ensure that all leave hospital with the information they need to be able to process their experience and have an opportunity to make arrangements to speak to a member of the multidisciplinary team about their birth
- Additional, ring-fenced capital investment in maternity services to ensure that women receive safe, timely care in an environment that protects their dignity and promotes recovery.
The report brings together the findings of inspections carried out at 131 hospital maternity units across 92 NHS trusts, as part of the national maternity inspection programme. The report sets out key themes, evidence of good practice and the common areas of concern. It makes recommendations for NHS trusts, the wider system and national bodies.
Sandy Lewis, MNSI Director said:
“The publication of the National Maternity Inspection Report today highlights that issues with maternity care in England continue to persist despite many national and local investigations all unearthing similar challenges.
“Inconsistent approaches to triage and challenging communication with women / birthing people and their families have consistently appeared as themes that contribute to unsafe care for women in our investigations. We have outlined approaches to improve communication and taking a more consistent approach to triage both for individual trusts and more widely through our National Learning Reports.
“Evidence about the inequalities in maternity outcomes for Black and ethnic minority women / birthing people is established. We will continue our work to explore and understand this so we ensure that Black and ethnic minority women / birthing people are be able to receive individualised care that supports their maternity outcome.
“The challenge for all maternity services and the wider sector now will be to implement the recommendations made today and those in previous reports, to ensure they become a reality for the women / birthing people and their families.”
You can read more about our National Learning Reports here: Publications (mnsi.org.uk)
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