People let our babies die then go to work next day as if nothing's happened

Nurse Julie demands national inquiry on maternity service failings

- CRAIG MEIGHAN

PARENTS who lost their babies in hospitals are demanding an inquiry into a "toxic culture" in maternity services which has "shielded and protected" the NHS.

Julie Keegan, an ICU nurse whose three-day-old baby died after failings at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), claimed a lack of accountability meant "nobody ever faces consequences" in the NHS, even for serious errors.

She told the Scottish Parliament: "These people are letting our babies die and they're going to work the next day." Julie and her partner, Angus McLean, were joined by Lori Quate, whose daughter died in his wife's womb in 2020, a week before she was due to give birth.

Jacqui Hunter, who was 39, died less than 24 hours later from an amniotic fluid embolism, a rare and lifethreatening emergency.

She was given eight times the recommended dose of the drug used to induce early labour, a mistake that some experts say may have contributed to her death.

Lori said 'only a national inquiry" could uncover NHS failings across the country.

Lynsey Hamilton, Labour's Holyrood candidate for Clydesdale, who said that she lost her second child after symptoms of pre-eclampsia were missed, also attended the meeting alongside Labour's health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, and Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie.

It came ahead of a Labour debate at Holyrood calling for a national inquiry into maternity and neonatal services, which Baillie said "transcends party politics".