Contribution
I am very grateful to both the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Ian Roome) for allowing me the opportunity to contribute to this debate, and I am glad that we have a little bit of time for me to do so. I have to admit that I have interpreted the title of the debate, “NHS Maternity Services”, a little broadly, but I represent a rural constituency in Scotland, and I recognise many of the things that my hon. Friend has referred to in his speech, as well as the contributions of other right hon. and hon. Members. My hon. Friend has demonstrated not only a real understanding of the acute needs in his constituency, but a broader understanding of the challenges that maternity services face. That is why the issues he has described are replicated in many parts of the UK, including Scotland.
In the UK, a baby is born roughly every 50 seconds. Given that, we might expect maternity services to be among the best-resourced and best-supported parts of our NHS, but we know, as we heard this afternoon, that this is not the reality. In Scotland, nine in 10 midwives report chronic staff shortages, and nearly three quarters of maternity units are not staffed at levels that are considered safe. In rural areas such as mine in North East Fife, those pressures can be even more acute. Despite the extraordinary dedication of our midwives, nurses and support staff, an overstretched system too often leaves women and families without the care and support they deserve.
In the limited time I have, I want briefly to share the stories of two of my constituents. The first is Kristie Haldane, who has shown immense courage in speaking publicly about her experiences so that others do not have to suffer in silence. She experienced both an incomplete abortion and a traumatic miscarriage. On both occasions she received treatment that, for a variety of reasons, fell far below the standard anyone should expect. It is important for us to remember that this is not just about the experience itself, but the impact it has on people’s mental health, as it has on Kristie’s. It has impacted her employment and her confidence. Following her experiences, she lost her job and experienced homelessness, and struggled to access the support she desperately required.
What struck me was not only the grief that Kristie endured, but the loneliness and isolation that accompanied it. After her miscarriage, she was discharged from hospital and feels that she, her partner and her wider family received little support. At the moment when compassion and care were needed most, she felt abandoned by our system. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the patient experience team at NHS Fife. As constituency MPs, we all support constituents when they are making complaints, and the reconciliation process that Kristie has gone through—with my support and that of my team —has helped in some ways to understand what happened, but also to ensure that we learn lessons.
Turning to my second point, we talk about maternity care in the context of pregnancy and birth, but we know that there are key challenges in reproductive health more broadly. I have another constituent whose experience highlights the importance of informed patient safety. Tammy Payne was prescribed the contraceptive injection Depo-Provera more than a decade ago, but was not warned about the potentially increased risk of developing meningiomas, a type of brain tumour. After experiencing persistent double vision, she was diagnosed with multiple meningiomas and subsequently underwent surgery to relieve pressure on her optic nerve. When one of the tumours returned, she required a craniotomy, a major operation involving the temporary removal of part of the skull to access the brain. She has been left without the use of one eye, and feels betrayed by a system that was supposed to inform, protect and support her.
I place on record my admiration for both Kristie and Tammy, because it takes enormous courage to relive those kinds of deeply traumatic experiences in public. I hope the Minister will engage with me, particularly on Tammy’s case, to discuss Depo-Provera and the risks it poses more widely. The truth is that neither of those women should have gone through what they did, which is one of the reasons why my party has long called for an independent maternity commissioner for England. We welcome the Government’s commitment to establish one.
In Scotland there has been constant, long-term campaigning by the Caithness Health Action Team, my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) and the new MSP for Caithness, David Green, for the SNP Government to finally provide better maternity services in the far north of Scotland. We welcome Professor McCourt’s independent review, which has a focus on the far north and will look at maternity services in Scotland. That will take into account the unannounced inspections of all 18 acute maternity units in Scotland that are currently being carried out. That is really important, but I think it demonstrates that we have much more to do across the UK to provide reproductive health support and maternity support. Women deserve better, families deserve better, and our maternity services deserve the resources that they need to deliver better care.