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First thing today, on BBC Breakfast, we hear of a joint BBC News/New Statesman, external investigation into maternity care at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UH Sussex) which has found:

• At least 55 babies who died may have survived with better care between 2019 and 2023
• A review of nine stillbirths in 2021 and 2022 found missed opportunities in all cases
• External investigators warned that a “normal birth” culture (one that seeks to promote vaginal delivery with minimal medical intervention) was causing concern
• Payments for maternity errors at the trust were the highest in England last year

No government nor former government minister is associated, in the BBC Health report, with these horrific figures.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg2n644l44o

Starting with the last bullet point above but coming to all of them, we already know this about the relative performance of NHS Scotland, despite the continuous efforts by BBC Scotland, the Herald and Scottish Labour to pin a much smaller number deaths on the Scottish Government.

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://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/publications/media-release-inspection-report-royal-infirmary-of-edinburgh-nhs-lothian/

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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