“Things cannot remain as they are”—UK’s top obstetrician on workforce morale

For years, maternity care in the UK has come under intense scrutiny. Inquiries into services at Morecambe Bay,1 Shrewsbury and Telford,2 and East Kent3 have all highlighted dysfunctional working relationships, defensiveness, and poor care.Last year the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that many people still weren’t receiving safe, good quality maternity services, and it highlighted issues around leadership, staffing, and communication.4 More recently, the first ever all party parliamentary group inquiry into birth trauma in the UK heard harrowing accounts of stillbirth, premature birth, and life changing injuries in babies and mothers.5Ranee Thakar, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) since 2022, says that maternity safety and improvement are absolute priorities but that she also has serious concerns about morale among people working in maternity services. She warns that staff burnout is putting the system under increased pressure and leaving it less able to provide good care…
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