Maternity and Neonatal Services Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Cumberlege
Main Page: Baroness Cumberlege (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Cumberlege's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 year, 10 months ago)
Lords ChamberTo ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to implement the recommendations of the report by Dr Bill Kirkup Maternity and neonatal services in East Kent: “Reading the signals”, published on 19 October.
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and, in so doing, I declare that I am remunerated for chairing the independent maternity review.
I am grateful to Dr Kirkup for this report. Our intention is to review the recommendations alongside existing work to improve maternity outcomes, including the recommendations from Donna Ockenden’s final report. With NHS England, we have established an independent working group chaired by the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that we will use to support our considerations.
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. Does he agree that as this has been a series of maternity tragedies across England, we must do all we can to prevent further disasters? Will he, with NHS England, introduce a maternity signalling system that identifies units providing poor care before they cause widespread harm?
I thank my noble friend. I agree. This was captured in recommendation 1 by Dr Kirkup about having early warning indicators in place. That is what we have set up in the maternity quality surveillance framework, which has the oversight in this area and can escalate concerns and effectively report to the national maternity safety surveillance and concerns group, which can then put the trust into special measures.