NHS trusts have been told to “pull their finger out” to eradicate unnecessary risks in maternity services, reports Children & Young People Now (Mar 5).

The advice comes from the Royal College of Midwives in the wake of an inquiry that says that maternity services are still failing to take a systematic approach to safety.

Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, says that trusts are not allocating enough resources to maternity care. “This should galvanise trusts to pull their fingers out and address the issues in the report and encourage the Government to sustain its investment in midwives and resources,” she says.

Her comments were in response to the King’s Fund inquiry report Safe Births, which says that even though the overwhelming majority of births in the country are safe, trusts are still not giving maternity services a high enough priority and this is creating risks.

It calls for stronger governance, better team working and more safety training.

“All maternity units need to have a reliable safety culture in place,” says Professor Onora O’Neill, the president of the British Academy and inquiry chair.

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb says: “Midwives need to be focused on caring for mothers, rather than being distracted by red tape and undertaking unrelated tasks.” www.kingsfund.org.uk

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