Sha-mone!Having severely critisised Jeremy Laurance recently, Dr Rant was glad to see him return to form yesterday. We wrote earlier in the year about the crisis in maternity care in UK.
Several reports, referred to in the IOS and elsewhere of late, have shown that maternal mortality rates are rising. This is a marker of a failing health service. The fact that the DoH seems to be in denial over the whole issue is typical new Labour mismanagement.
One of the greatest achievements of 20th century medicine, helped by the NHS was proper provision of obstetric and paediatric care. The Confidential Enquiries into maternal and child health have a long pedigree as an example of self reflective audit and reflection at its best. They are well respected reports over many years. They have played a key role in driving up standards of maternity and paediatric care.
To see standards going backwards is simply appalling to any doctor. To see money spent on rising negligence payouts rather than employing enough staff in the first place is sad. Getting maternity right was one of the NHS’s achievements and it looks like it is throwing it away.
One story here of delivery in a hospital lift.
One sensible comment here from John Priestman in Huddersfield,one of the commentators on Times piece,
“With the reconfiguration of maternity services and closure of consultant led units in many district general hospitals, this will get worse. It is only a matter of time before there is either a perinatal or maternal death in an ambulance during transfer from a midwife only unit to a consultant unit in another hospital. When this happens I would expect those politicians and hospital chief executives who orchestrated this to take the blame and not try to point the finger at the poor midwife in the maternity unit or ambulance”.
All in all these reports on maternity services provide great evidence of just how well new Labour is succeeding in its reforms of the health service. Another great success for this sleazy and incompetent regime.
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We used to have a Confidential Inquiry Into Maternal Deaths this was published every three years. The triennial report was what it said on the packet, a report into maternal deaths that had huge influence not only on practice but also service provision. Maternal deaths have consistently fallen over the last 50 years. Part of the credit must go to this reporting system. From time to time the death rate from specific causes has risen, for example with haemorrhage. Interest is generated in response, the problem addressed and the death rate falls. A few years ago the eye-catching title Why Mothers Die was introduced with a photograph of a father literally left holding the baby. Maternal deaths continued to fall. Now that maternal death rates are increasing the spin-meisters have changed the title to Saving Mother's Lives. Don't be fucking stupid. If your life has been saved you are not in this book but are at least able to read it unlike the poor sods whose lives have not been saved. A report with a long and honourable history has now been reduced to spin.
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=553&id=2187082005
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4402602.stm
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