Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Herald today, the above and:
Scottish Labour has called for a national investigation into maternity and neonatal services following a catalogue of safety concerns raised across Scotland.
The party is set to use a debate in the Scottish Parliament today to push the Scottish Government to launch a nationwide review into what it describes as “dangerously overstretched” services that are failing mothers, babies, and staff.
and:
This is a purely political move underpinned by self-centred ambition and the evidence offered here but never by the ‘Scottish’ media, is clear and unambiguous.
NHS England has to pay out more than twice as much as NHS Scotland for ‘maternity failings’
£1.3 billion was paid out in Scotland in 2024/205 compared to £27 BILLION in England.
Per head, that £1.3 billion becomes £13 billion, less than half the NHS England pay-outs of £27 billion.
Sources:
https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1983476698260623709
https://www.cwj.co.uk/site/newsandevents/legalnews/costs_of_NHS_maternity_care_claims_revealed.htmljohnrobertson834Edit
NHS Scotland caring for 8% of the population but with not one of the five major maternity crises and a system that is ‘equitable’
From BBC Health in June 2025:
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, has said “we must act now” as he announced a national investigation into maternity care in England.
The announcement comes after a series of critical reports into maternity care over the past decade.
- In March 2015 an investigation found mothers and babies died unnecessarily at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust between 2004 and 2013 – the report described a dysfunctional culture with substandard clinical skills, poor risk assessments and a repeated failure to properly investigate cases and learn lessons.
- In March 2022 an investigation into services at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust found that more than 200 mothers and babies could have survived with better care.
- Then, in October that year, a review into maternity services at East Kent Hospitals University NHS trust found that at least 45 babies might have survived if they had been given proper treatment.
- And an ongoing review into the maternity care provided by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust, due to be completed next year, is set to be the biggest yet, with around 2,500 cases being examined.
- Meanwhile, an annual review in 2024 of units by inspectors at the Care Quality Commission found not a single one of the 131 units inspected received the top outstanding rating for providing safe care.
Dr Clea Harmer, chief executive of the baby loss charity Sands, said the national investigation was “much-needed and long-overdue”.
The ‘Scottish’ media are quiet. If they had something, they’d be all over it like nappy rash.
I searched for ‘Scotland maternity inspections substandard‘ – only English ‘hits’.
I searched the Healthcare Improvement Scotland site – nothing.
I tried ‘Scotland maternity hospital inspection concerns‘ – bingo!
As in the headline, only one minor concern in 2017 and another in 2013 but hey, using Reporting Scotland editorial standards, that’ll do. Get Gulhane or Baillie on the phone.
Equitable in Scotland?
See this from Stirling University researchers in the BMJ in 2019:
We found few differences in maternity care experience for women based on their physical or socioeconomic characteristics. Our findings indicate that maternity care in Scotland is generally equitable. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e023282
Further measures in Scotland:
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.’ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12947355/Deaths-women-childbirth-hits-highest-level-two-decades-amid-string-scandals-experts-warn-failures-span-entire-maternity-system.html
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. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400409637/
As for midwife supply, in 2023, the total number of midwives in Scotland had grown from 3 529 to 3612. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00620/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
“but Jackie Baillie calls for a national review in Scotland”…….
Of course she does…….
That’s called ‘Playing politics’……..which she plays very often ,very badly and very dirty……as desperate times for Labour in Scotland always then seems to call for desperate measures by them………aka clutching at straws.
The reason Baillie often plays politics very badly and very dirty is because she cannot credibly accuse and so try to smear another opposition party effectively , as in the SNP, mainly because her own party’s record is so dismal and is also not a record that has set high standards ……..
In fact the low standards they, Labour, have set in Wales , England and also the UK as governments are those that are easily beaten….by our Scottish government , who against all odds, have maintained a standard that serves us all well in Scotland.
The only response you will hear from Baillie to a question that is directed at Labour being #BAD is for her, Baillie, to then immediately launch into another #SNPBAD tirade………..
As in she, just like Anas Sarwar, will not answer the question but instead try to divert attention away from Labour being #BAD in attempting to blame and accuse the SNP of doing this, that and the next thing……minus, of course, any independent data and stats from her (or Sarwar) to then substantiate her (or his) dubious claims.
However we all know the BBC will give credence and publicity to any old S**** that comes from her (or Sarwar’s) mouth…….as God forbid they, the BBC, would first seek to verify it, clarify it and then even correct it, if they chose to report upon it………..which they always do, as in they always choose to repeat Labour’s allegations and opinions that are directed at the SNP.
Unfortunately their, the BBC’s, bad habit as a British broadcaster in Scotland is to instinctively always publish or broadcast the Labour sourced (so called) ‘news’ first..…….then…..
When that ‘news’ is eventually found to be yet another Labour party red herring….via complaints made to the BBC….then it ends up as yet another addition in the BBC’s Correction’s and clarifications page……..
A well hidden page on their website where BBC HQ will tell you they were “happy to correct it” as a supposed ‘error’ … more really a case of the BBC in Scotland being “happy” to promote it in the first place as yet another #SNPBAD false report.
The Labour party and the BBC in Scotland are in a “union of equals”…as both are equally as bad as each other………in the fake news that they both like to spread within Scotland about both the SNP and about Scottish independence.
Liz S
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when JB’s name appears in the headline can we get a pic of a friendly hippopotamus to go with it? please and thank you.
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Today’s BBC Scotland Politics website has an article with the headline
“A national investigation into maternity services in Scotland is to be carried out, the BBC understands”
and features a story about newborn neonatal infection.
https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/newborn-babies-at-risk-from-bacteria-commonly-carried-by-mothers/
“In the USA, all pregnant women are routinely screened for GBS and treated with antibiotics if found to be positive. In the UK, women who test positive for GBS are also treated with antibiotics. However, only a minority of pregnant women are tested for GBS, as the approach in the UK is to obtain samples only from women experiencing complications, or with other risk factors.”
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