Press release: NHS Confederation responds to the Healthcare Commission maternity services review

25 Jan 2008

Commenting on the Healthcare Commission's review, Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents over 95 per cent of NHS organisations said:

"We welcome this benchmarking study as it allows NHS organisations to consider performance and how they can continue improving care in an area of care that is vitally important to patients.

"We recognise that this review reveals deep concerns about maternity services. There are three issues in particular that we think should be addressed:

"First we believe that choice should drive patterns of maternity provision. We should look at ways of adapting the system so that the choices mothers make about where they have their child drive improvement in services and enable successful units to increase their provision. 

"Second, there are clearly issues around staffing levels that need to be addressed through increased recruitment. In the shorter term, the Foundation Trust Network, through a benchmarking exercise, has identified ways in which midwives can free up more time through less travelling and less bureaucracy. We are keen to see this best practice spread further.

"Third, we need to examine the reasons why clinicians are not following NICE and other guidance. Managers and professionals need to work through the barriers and blocks to ensure mothers are given the service they need.

"This review is a useful basis for NHS organisations to improve and we welcome the Commission's decision to repeat this exercise. Comparisons between trusts must be treated with caution. The Commission has made it clear that all services are safe and, as a benchmarking exercise, it is important to remember that the difference between the top score and the bottom score is in fact quite small."

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation represents more than 95% of the organisations that make up the NHS. Its members include the majority of NHS acute trusts, ambulance trusts, foundation trusts, mental health trusts, primary care trusts, special health authorities and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.

Contact details

Contact Niall Smith 020 7074 3304 or 07767 770309, Ruth Kennedy 020 7074 3312 or 07884 47 3086, or Ruby Casey-Knight 020 7074 3306 or 07881 957305.  For out of hours media enquiries, please call the Duty Press Officer on 07880 500726.

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