Maternity care crisis 'much worse' than anticipated

The recent interim report on the state of England’s maternity services, led by Baroness Amos, have led to numerous concerns. The findings are sobering, confirming what many families have long suspected: poor maternity care is a widespread, systemic crisis. 

The review chief stated that the standards of care were "much worse" than anticipated, citing disturbing evidence of basic needs not being met, including reports of "hungry mothers and dirty wards."

For Freeths’ Clinical Negligence team, these findings are deeply concerning. They underscore that the distress, injury, and tragedy experienced by families are often not isolated incidents but symptoms of a wider failure in the system to provide fundamental, high-quality care.

A Failure of Basic Standards

The reports analysis of deficiencies such as "dirty wards" and "hungry mothers" point to serious breakdowns in fundamental care provision and resource management, including:

• Inadequate hygiene and sanitation: Dirty wards significantly increase the risk of infection for both mother and baby, which can lead to severe and preventable complications, such as sepsis. A failure to maintain a clean environment can constitute a breach of duty of care.
• Staffing and resources: Reports of mothers being left hungry suggest critical understaffing or poor logistical planning. When staff are overstretched, they are more likely to miss crucial warning signs of complications, leading to a delay in treatment for issues like pre-eclampsia, haemorrhage, or fetal distress.
• Systemic neglect: The statement that care is "much worse" than expected suggests that these issues are not confined to a single failing Trust but are endemic across England’s maternity units. 

The slow pace of change: The report highlights that nearly 750 recommendations have been made regarding maternity care over the past decade. Baroness Amos questioned why, despite clear warnings and numerous reviews, change has been so "slow," demonstrating a pervasive culture of unresponsiveness to established safety guidelines.

Disregard for mothers’ concerns: A recurring and distressing theme is that women were not being listened to. Concerns about their own bodies or vital information, such as reduced fetal movement, were often disregarded by clinical teams—a clear failure to take a patient's history and symptoms seriously.

Our claims against University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust

The findings of Baroness Amos's national review directly mirror the recurring issues we have seen in our own case history. At Freeths, we are actively representing numerous families in claims against University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.

Our clients' experiences reflect these same systemic failures highlighted nationally, including inadequate fetal monitoring and a breakdown in timely escalation of care. These concerns have been substantiated by external investigations, notably the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections that rated services at Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital, Burton as 'Inadequate' for safety and leadership. While the service has shown some progress since its previous ‘Inadequate’ rating in 2023, the CQC has now rated it as ‘Requires Improvement’, citing ongoing concerns about safety, leadership, and care coordination.