'Maternity services are broken' Notts MPs tell Commons debate

GOVERNMENT MUST NOT WASTE CHANCE TO FIX THINGS, THEY SAY

- By JOEL MOORE

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE MPs have urged the Government not to waste its chance to fix "broken" maternity services in a historic Parliamentary debate.

In the debate on baby loss the first of its kind for 30 years in the House of Commons on Monday, the Labour politicians joined other MPs in sharing devastating stories from families in their constituencies.

The debate came in the middle of Baby Loss Awareness Week and amid a national "rapid" review of maternity care announced earlier this year by the Government.

Several MPs spoke of failings at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), which is responsible for running the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, and subject to the largest maternity review in NHS history and multiple Nottinghamshire Police investigations.

Senior midwife Donna Ockenden is leading the independent review of almost 2,500 cases of harm at the trust and is due to deliver her findings in June.

Michelle Welsh, MP for Sherwood Forest, who was instrumental in organising the debate, said maternity services in Nottingham and nationally were "fundamentally broken".

"We must stop whispering abut baby loss in the shadows. We must talk about the preventative errors, the missed opportunities and the systemic failures in our maternity services that have turned grief into dust," she told the chamber.

"The heartbreak and loss are a consequence of a system that is failing.