The government has now set out its full response to the independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services at East Kent that was published last year.
The government response provides more detail on the range of actions being taken to address and implement the recommendations from Dr Bill Kirkup’s independent review into East Kent’s maternity services.
Action to improve maternity and neonatal services at East Kent and other NHS trusts.
A key part of the government response is the establishment of a new National Oversight Group, chaired by the Minister for Women’s Health, Maria Caulfield, that will be overseeing maternity services across the UK. This will bring together key people from the NHS and other organisations to look at the work being carried out by a range of programmes set up to improve maternity and neonatal care, to ensure they are joined up and effective.
The government has also appointed Dr Kirkup to work with healthcare partners to help ensure teams in maternity and neonatal care across England can work together more collaboratively so the best quality, compassionate care is provided. These are hugely important parts of ensuring safe care, which have been highlighted in numerous reviews.
"Today’s Government response to the East Kent Maternity Review provides welcome detail on the range of different actions being taken to address and implement the recommendations from Dr Kirkup’s report.
"It is imperative that the Government and NHS England ensure listening to parents remains a central part of the implementation process at all levels. This is vital in making sure that meaningful change is made to save babies’ lives.
"We look forward to continued work with the Government to transform maternity care so that it is safe, equitable and accessible for all."
- Robert Wilson, Head of the Sands and Tommy's Joint Policy Unit
The report highlights the importance of key areas of work that the voluntary sector and patient groups are currently involved with to improve services for everyone and ensure the voices of parents are listened to.
Sands will continue to work with the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust to support bereaved families and help the trust to roll out improvements in bereavement care.
Working together to save babies' lives
Sands and Tommy's Joint Policy Unit team will be looking in more detail at the range of different activities set out in the response. We will continue to hold government to account on progress to improve maternity safety, and a commitment to evaluating and reviewing the impact of different steps that are being taken.
The establishment of a ministerial oversight group is a welcome step. However, recommendations from previous reviews over a number of years have not led to the fundamental change needed to ensure safe care for all. For this group to be a success it must be able to direct meaningful change, with clear lines of accountability for making progress on these recommendations.
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