Streeting accused of ‘betrayal’ over maternity funding plan

Campaigners have questioned Well being Secretary Wes Streeting’s dedication to maternity security after his division watered down funding ranges.

Virtually £100m was invested into enhancing maternity security yearly following the publication of an interim report into poor care on the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS belief. However modifications by the Division of Well being imply that simply £2m of the funding is assured to be spent on maternity care this yr.

Rhiannon Davies, who misplaced her daughter as a result of poor care on the belief, known as the choice “an absolute betrayal by Wes Streeting”.

The Division of Well being stated native well being leaders can be given the cash to resolve how finest to spend it.

The Royal Faculty of Midwives described the funding resolution as taking “a wrecking ball” to maternity security.

The review into maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford trust, revealed in 2022, discovered that at the very least 201 infants and 9 moms might have survived with higher care.

Following the publication of an interim report, in March 2021, NHS England stated it might enhance spending on maternity care by £95m a yr.

On the time, it stated the cash can be used to rent as many as 1,000 midwives and round 80 guide obstetricians.

A few of the cash was additionally to be spent on permitting consultants and midwives to coach collectively – a key suggestion of the preliminary report, by senior midwife Donna Ockenden – in addition to allocating cash for the NHS to recruit from abroad.

However evaluation of NHS funding for this yr, carried out by the Health Service Journal, confirmed that simply £2m of the £95m was to be ringfenced for 2025/26.

The remainder of the cash can be given to the 42 Built-in Care Boards (ICBs) that resolve how the well being service funding is allotted domestically throughout England.

Responding to the change, Ms Ockenden posted on social media: “How has this occurred? So upset. Speaking to colleagues throughout perinatal providers, the sense of disappointment is profound.”

If the ICBs resolve to spend the cash they have been allotted on maternity care, there will not be a funding reduce.

However some maternity workers have labelled the change as disastrous, fearing that taking away the funding safety will imply maternity budgets can be reduce.

“Eradicating the ringfencing will take us again years,” stated a senior midwife.

The Royal Faculty of Midwives stated it was “completely shocked” by Streeting’s resolution, including it was “short-sighted” and “completely unacceptable”.

“These finances cuts… will rip the guts out of any strikes to enhance maternity security,” stated chief government Gill Walton.

“The federal government has taken a wrecking ball to the work that is being carried out up and down the nation to enhance maternity security, one thing which is desperately wanted.”

Rhiannon Davies, who alongside Kayleigh Griffiths was instrumental in getting the Shrewsbury inquiry commissioned, was additionally strongly vital of the well being secretary.

The cash, she wrote, “was to make sure others averted the lifelong ache we’ve got to endure with out our youngsters”.

The Division of Well being and Social Care stated maternity care remained a high precedence for the well being service.

In a press release, it stated: “The identical degree of funding continues to be being delivered as a part of wider ICB allocations, giving native healthcare leaders – who’re finest positioned to resolve how you can serve their local people – extra flexibility.

“We’re clear that too many ladies usually are not receiving the secure, personalised and compassionate maternity care they deserve, however by our Plan for Change, this authorities is set to vary that.”

The division stated it might assist hospital trusts to make speedy enhancements and prepare hundreds extra midwives.