Professor John Robertson OBA
BBC Scotland this morning claimed that mothers and babies came to harm in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary due to a toxic culture there, as they reported on an independent review. The review as reported by BBC Scotland on their website today, does not mention that claim at all: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3x6vy3lkeo
The claim comes from a December 2024 internal review by Lothian Health board which BBC Scotland reported as only having this evidence:
But staff say they fear the risks to patients remain.
“We are afraid we can’t provide safe patient care and that women and babies are being harmed,” one staff member said, speaking to the BBC anonymously.
This is not adequate evidence for such a claim.
What’s happening elsewhere in the UK?
How do the statistics compare?
In January 2024, the Daily Mail reporting a drop in the number of midwives, had:
Women are dying during childbirth at the same rates as two decades ago, ‘alarming’ new data shows. An independent review into maternity deaths showed 293 women died during pregnancy and within six weeks of giving birth between 2020 and 2022. Experts said the upward trend is the most compelling evidence yet that failures now span ‘across the entire maternity system’ and is ‘not just one or two hospitals.’
The overall rate in 2020-2022, was 13.41 deaths per 100 000 births and based on the graph in the Daily Mail piece was around 11.8 in 2020.
The rate in Scotland was 10.9 for 2018/2020, the most recent figures.
Today, the Scottish Government responded to a Freedom of Information request from, I’m guessing, a disappointed so-called health correspondent at BBC Scotland or the Herald, to reveal that spending, to improve maternity and neonatal services was £4.m in 2022/2023 up from around only £3m in the previous two years.
As for midwife supply:
In 2023, the total number of midwives in Scotland had grown from 3 529 to 3612.
Finally, a bit dated I know but from 2019:
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
About time that BBCScotland came clean and announced that it is NOT a ”News” organisation but simply a propaganda arm of the colonial Westminster Government .
If they had their way anyone entering Scotland from the South would be faced with a huge banner stating ”Abandon Hope all ye who enter here ! ‘ – held aloft by Kay(e) and James Cook .
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