NHS maternity staff will take part in a mandatory training program to improve patient safety after a damning report from the health regulator said poor care and harm in childbirth was at risk of being “normalised”.
Midwives, midwives and obstetric anesthetists at nine maternity units in England will all have to undergo extra training from Monday under government plans to raise standards of care for women and babies. If the pilots are successful, the program will be rolled out to every maternity ward in the country.
The move comes just weeks after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, based on inspections of 131 maternity units, revealed a raft of problems, adding to the sense of crisis that has engulfed a service responsible for the 600,000 women who give birth each year and their babies.
The program will teach maternity staff how to better identify signals a baby experiences during labor so they can act more quickly. It will also help staff deal with obstetric emergencies that occur when a baby’s head is deep in the mother’s pelvis during a caesarean section.
Gillian Merron, Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health, said: “This Government is working with the NHS to urgently improve maternity care, giving staff the support they need to improve safety and ensure ensure that women’s voices are heard.
“This is a critical step toward preventing brain injuries in babies as we work to ensure all women and babies receive safe, personalized and compassionate care.”
The training will focus on improving the skills and capabilities of maternity staff to reduce the number of preventable brain injuries in babies during childbirth. The NHS has spent £4.1 billion over the past 11 years settling lawsuits involving babies who suffered brain damage at birth, amid claims that maternity units failed to learn from mistakes.
Six maternity wards are participating in pilots focused on the impacted head of the fetus during a caesarean section. They are the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Three sites are taking part in pilots aimed at strengthening the detection and response to babies who deteriorate while under NHS care. They are Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Last month, Nicola Wise, the CQC’s director of secondary and specialist care, said the regulator could not allow maternity failings that would not be tolerated in other services.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has previously described NHS maternity care as “one of the biggest issues keeping me awake at night”. He was concerned about “the quality of care being delivered today” and “the risk of disaster affecting women in labor tomorrow,” he said.
Dr. Ranee Thakar, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the pilots would help maternity teams by giving them the tools, resources and training to respond “effectively” to problems.
Gill Walton, the chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said avoidable harm to babies was “devastating” for the mothers and families affected and the staff involved. Improving safety was a priority, she added.
Donald Peebles, NHS England national clinical director for maternity, said he welcomed the government’s plans for extra training and that hospitals were already making progress in reducing the number of brain injuries during childbirth.