The Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee has today written to the Health Secretary Sajid Javid and NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) calling for urgent action around the issue of maternity care in Nottingham.
Councillors heard this morning from representatives of Nottingham University Hospital’s (NUH) NHS Trust who updated the Committee on progress in recent weeks and months. Maternity units at NUH have been rated as Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since 2020.
The Committee was told that some positive steps forward have been made, particularly around the commitment to engage with underrepresented and marginalised groups.
Members also had an update on the Thematic Review into Maternity Services at NUH, which has been commissioned by NHSE/I.
Councillor Georgia Power, who chairs the Committee, today called on both the Government and NHSE/I to urgently appoint a Chair to this review to accelerate change.
She said: “I wrote to Mr Javid back in March to escalate to him our serious concerns around the pace and evidence of improvement at NUH, including to maternity services.
“I have yet to receive a response to that letter and wrote again last week to chase it up.
“However, I’m clear that while we can see efforts going into ensuring the success of the review, it is being severely impeded by the lack of leadership and the vacant Chair post. It’s been close to a month now since Julie Dent’s resignation and we still don’t have a replacement in position.
“There is no doubt that the lack of leadership over the past month has destabilised the review. I am calling on Mr Javid and NHSE/I to show the necessary leadership to get it back on track.”
Read the letter here.