A damning assessment of maternity and neonatal services in Wales has revealed systemic failures, staffing shortages and missed opportunities to improve safety, leaving families unsupported and staff overstretched. The report goes on to say that national organisations responsible for improving maternity care are working in parallel, failing to use data effectively to identify unsafe trends, inequalities and areas requiring urgent intervention.
Additionally, the report highlights chronic staffing shortages, rising medical interventions, including record levels of caesarean births, and delays in reconfiguring neonatal services in south Wales are compromising safety and staff morale, while postnatal and mental health support lag behind the rest of the UK.
And finally, families report poor experiences, inconsistent incident investigations and a lack of meaningful involvement when things go wrong, further undermining trust and limiting opportunities to learn and improve.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Peter Fox MS said:
“After 27 years of Labour running our NHS, propped up by Plaid, this report lays bare a maternity system that is overstretched, under-supported and lagging behind the rest of the UK.
“Families are being let down by poor postnatal care, inadequate mental health provision and inconsistent investigations when things go wrong, while staff are left battling unsafe staffing levels and rising intervention rates.
“The Welsh Government must take responsibility for these failings and urgently fix systemic problems in maternity care. The Welsh Conservatives would bolster the workforce, improve vital data collection, and establish a dedicated mother and baby unit to plug the gap in provision for people living in North Wales.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The assessment of Maternity and Neonatal care and services report can be found here.
