NHS maternity staff will take part in a mandatory training programme to improve patient safety after a damning report by the health regulator said that poor care and harm in childbirth was in danger of becoming “normalised”.
Obstetricians, midwives and obstetric anaesthetists at nine maternity units across England will all have to do extra training from Monday under government plans to raise care standards for women and babies. The scheme will be rolled out to every maternity unit in the country if the pilots are successful.
The move comes just weeks after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report based on inspections of 131 maternity units exposed a slew of problems, adding to the sense of crisis that has engulfed a service responsible for the 600,000 women a year who give birth and their babies.
The programme will teach maternity staff how to better identify signs a baby is showing distress during labour so they can act more quickly. It will also help staff deal with obstetric emergencies that occur when a baby’s head is lodged deep in the mother’s pelvis during a caesarean section.
Gillian Merron, the minister 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 women’s voices are properly heard.
“This is a critical step toward avoiding preventable brain injuries in babies, as we work to make sure all women and babies receive safe, personalised and compassionate care.”
The training will focus particularly on improving the skills and ability of maternity staff to reduce the number of avoidable brain injuries of babies during childbirth. The NHS has spent £4.1bn over the last 11 years settling lawsuits involving babies who suffered brain damage when being born, amid claims that maternity units were not learning from mistakes.
Six maternity units are taking part in pilots focused on impacted foetal head during caesarean birth. 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 participating in pilots aimed at bolstering the detection of and response to babies deteriorating 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 an acceptance of shortfalls in maternity that were not tolerated in other services.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has previously described NHS maternity care as “one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night”. He worried about “the quality of care being delivered today” and “the risk of disaster greeting women in labour tomorrow”, he said.
Dr Ranee Thakar, the 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 mothers and families affected and staff involved. Improving safety was a priority, she added.
Donald Peebles, NHS England’s national clinical director for maternity, said he welcomed the government’s plans for extra training, and that hospitals were already making progress on reducing rates of brain injuries in childbirth.
