Maternity Services

Baroness Manzoor Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I welcome the noble Lord’s pursuit because that is absolutely the right thing to do. I think we all agree with that, and we would all say that what happened in East Kent and the other examples from the Ockenden report are clearly not something that we are happy with or that we should put up with. The Kirkup and Ockenden reports gave us a north star, a way forward. I am pleased to see that we are making progress on that, but I expect the noble Lord to hold us fully to account because I am holding the department to account on this.

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, building on what the noble Lord, Lord Patel, has said, my noble friend will know that continuity of care is really important and has been recommended by the Better Births maternity review. That builds up with better medical understanding of the woman, the pregnancy and the issues related to it. However, only 37% of women are afforded this, and that drops down to 27% in antenatal care. What are the Government doing to take steps to address this so that the terrible examples that we have seen recently are averted?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I agree with the work by my noble friends, including the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, to put the importance of midwifery continuity of care at the centre of everything. The survey to which my noble friend’s question refers shows that that is coming through in terms of a consistent message that having that confidence in the person in treating them is vital to all of this. That remains important. Key to this is the workforce, so this is one of the things that is being built into the workforce plan. That is starting with ensuring that we have new people coming in. The 1,200 graduates that we now have going into training each year are a vital part of making sure that we can deliver.