Calls are growing for Scotland’s Patient Safety Commissioner to be given extra powers to investigate failing maternity services.
Campaigners believe Karen Titchener should tackle Scotland’s maternity crisis following damning inspections and highly controversial plans to downgrade specialist neonatal intensive care units from eight to just three.
She has already been an outspoken critic of NHS secrecy over hospital blunders and adverse incidents reports as well as the scandal of hundreds of sexual assaults on patients being treated in hospital.
And Titchener has already worked alongside Professor Christine McCourt, who has been appointed by the Scottish Government to chair a review of the country’s maternity services.
Following a Sunday Post exposé revealing 500 baby and mother deaths between 2019 and 2024 in Scottish maternity units, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) carried out a series of inspections finding widespread issues over culture, bullying, delays with induction, poor training and understaffing.
England is set to appoint its first ever Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner in the wake of scandals at Nottingham, East Kent, Shrewsbury, and Leeds.
Baroness Valerie Amos ruled at the end of last month that England’s maternity services were no longer able to “consistently deliver high-quality and compassionate care”.
Campaigner Rab Wilson, from ASAP NHS, whose revelations sparked one of Scotland’s first ever baby death inquiries at NHS Ayrshire & Arran, said: “Scotland’s Patient Safety Commissioner has already shown herself to be an independent fair critic who has patient safety at the heart of everything she has done so far.
“It would be a step forward if the Patient Safety Commissioner was given whatever additional resources and powers she needs to expand her role to include maternity services.”
Women fighting to overturn controversial plans to radically downgrade neonatal intensive care units are adding their voices.
Lynne McRitchie, from East Kilbride, has petitioned the Scottish Government to halt their neonatal downgrade plan, including the closure of the multi-award-winning Wishaw unit where her own premature baby son Innes spent 119 days.
She said: “The Patient Safety Commissioner is a trusted professional who would be perfect in this role. The inspections by HIS have also shown considerable concerns about safety standards in our maternity units across Scotland.
“Families want to see action now. Waiting years for the outcome of the ongoing review could cause even more loss of life or injuries that could be avoided.
“That is why we believe the government should be asking the Patient Safety Commissioner to include maternity services in her role.”
In her report on England’s maternity services, Baroness Amos found the same issues causing concern across Scotland – staff in fear of speaking up because of bullying, defensive investigations, families not being listened to and being excluded from decisions, and understaffing.
Titchener said: “I have been studying Baroness Amos’s report closely and it echoes what I have been saying about Scotland’s own patient safety architecture – we are improvement rich but assurance light.
“It is just not enough to know what good maternity care looks like in Scotland.
“We need someone independent to systematically check what is actually happening and be able to report that back to Parliament without fear or favour.
“My office is already a stakeholder in Professor McCourt’s independent maternity review which I welcome and I fully support the work she will be doing.
“What I am determined to ensure is that whatever Professor McCourt finds and recommends is fully implemented and done so quickly. What I don’t currently have is a resourced mandate to track implementation of a specific review’s recommendations over time in the way Baroness Amos is proposing for England.
“If the Scottish Parliament judged that this office should take on that function for the McCourt review findings, I would welcome that conversation, but it would need to come with the resources to do it properly, not as an add-on to an already full statutory remit.
“My focus is making sure Scotland does not wait too long to find out what many families and staff already know: that our maternity services are in crisis.”
Public Health Minister Maree Todd said: “Every woman in Scotland deserves safe, compassionate and high-quality maternity care, regardless of where she lives.
“That’s why we have already commissioned an independent review into maternity services, which will be chaired by Professor Christine McCourt.
“It is crucial that the review and its outputs are informed by the experiences of women, families and staff within our maternity services.
“Professor McCourt will consult with key stakeholders, including the Scottish Patient Safety Commissioner, as well as women and their families.”
Original available: Power to probe maternity care crisis is vital to commissioner, insist activists, The Sunday Post
[Image description: Portrait photograph of Karen Titchener standing in an open paved area outside a modern civic-style building with glass, steel and stone architectural features. Karen Titchener is wearing a teal jacket with a dark check pattern over a black top and a smartwatch. The Scottish Parliament building is softly blurred in the background, drawing focus to the subject in the foreground. The image is taken in daylight with an overcast sky.]