The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has published a statement following the Government response to the independent review of maternity services at the East Kent NHS Trust.
Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, comments:
“As the Government officially responds to the Independent Investigation of Maternity and Neonatal services in East Kent report, our thoughts are with all the families affected.
“We will carefully consider our role in the recommendations outlined today, but are disappointed that the Government has not accompanied these with any commitment for increased investment in maternity services. We continue to call on the Government to publish a fully-funded NHS workforce plan, which is vitally needed to ensure safe, high quality maternity care.”
Information on the work the RCOG is delivering to improve maternity safety:
Information about our work in maternity safety can be found here.
The RCOG continues to prioritise a range of programmes focused on improving maternity safety, in partnership with the RCM and other health organisations. These include our ABC programme to reduce brain injury childbirth, and development of the Tommy’s digital clinical support tool to help identify those pregnant women who are most at risk of giving birth prematurely or of developing pregnancy complications that can lead to stillbirth.
As well as publishing clinical guidelines to support safe and effective clinical practice and developing a new maternity strategy, we are also developing a new workforce planning tool to assist maternity units calculate their medical staffing requirements, to better support families and babies.
We also jointly chair the Independent Maternity Working Group with the RCM which was set up in response to the Final Ockenden Report, on 30 March 2022. This group aims to act as a critical friend to those who have responsibility to fund and implement recommendations identified in maternity safety reports.