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The Herald today has ‘Tipping point’ for maternity services.
It’s nonsense. Why? This:
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.html
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/
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Talking-up Scotland 
Yet another area in which the Scottish Health Service is performing better than our southern neighbour .
We know this because it has NOT been pounced upon by the Society of Ambulance Chasers , led by Sarwar , Baillie and Mr Brylcreem Gulhane ( NHS lanyard prominently displayed ). Mind you , because Scotland is out performing the English NHS in many areas has not stopped them lying about facts in the past .
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The Scottish NHS, as John exposes every day, is by far a better public service than the English NHS.
I happened to be watching a YouTube channel last night and an ad popped up.
Three members of the public (?), telling us how they have been badly treated, neglected or something terrible, all by the NHS, all in about three seconds, flashing in front of your eyes, before you can blink, then quick as flash, Sarwar appears, oh I see their new trick he doesn’t appear straight away, I did not watch what he was saying and telling his big fat lies! It’s obviously an advert attempting to undermine the Scottish NHS and label it as SNP bad story. Plenty money for ads to tout their lies, saying as Labour’s campaign (lies) is funded by billionaires.
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why for the media link any mishap in our NHS to the Scots Gov, the same media never link major fukups in the NHS in England or Wales to the Govs in London or Cardiff, funny that.
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