Complaints Against Maternity Services are on the Rise in England.

Complaints for maternity services up by 10% year-on-year, with claims in this area costing the NHS over £7billion in claims in 2021/22

The most recent annual NHS Resolutions report for 2021/22 states that the cost of maternity care claims equates to 60% of the £13 billion spent on all negligence claims by the NHS in the last year.

Additionally, a House of Commons Committee report has shown the NHS is currently facing the worst understaffing crisis in their history, with maternity departments being amongst the hardest-hit. According to the report, the Committee’s maternity safety inquiry advised last year that the NHS needs 2,000 more midwives and almost 500 obstetricians, but there is not yet a deadline from the Government on when this issue will be addressed.

With such a serious workforce shortage, which has the potential to significantly impact the level of care some patients receive, we decided to find out more about how this could be leading to higher-than-usual patient complaints, as well as how the situation has changed since before the pandemic.

We sourced and analysed NHS data on written complaints filed against maternity departments and midwives since 2019/20, up to the most recent statistics covering the first months of 2022.

While these aren’t specifically ‘negligence’ claims, they may act as a broader indicator of how satisfied patients are with such an essential and delicate area of care, as well as helping identify any wider trends, as they still constitute formal action taken against departments, which have not provided the expected level of care.

As part of our research, we also sourced the most recent figures from the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC survey), conducted in 2021, which explores which areas of maternity care require improvement according to patients.

How has the situation changed since before the pandemic?

In total, there have been more than 25,000 complaints made against NHS maternity services or midwives in the last two years.

Our analysis has shown that while the peak period for complaints since 2019/20 was during the first Covid-19 national lockdown – written complaints against maternity services and midwives have since grown year-on-year in 2021/22, seeing a 10% rise across England.

When looking at the complaints logged against maternity departments only (not midwives), the data shows these have grown by 16% in the past year, from 3,970 recorded in 2020/21 to 4,610 in 2021/22.

Essentially, the data illustrates that coming out of the pandemic the situation has only worsened.

How does this vary across England?

Our study has shown that some areas of the country appear to have been more affected than others.

According to the data, it is Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust that has had the most complaints about its maternity services – 1,141 in the last two years, which is 5% of the England total.

Barts Health NHS Trust – which was established in 2012 and runs five hospitals throughout the City of London and East London – was the second most complained about for its maternity care, with 929 complaints (4% of the England total).

It is worth noting, for clarity, that both of these Trusts are considered among the biggest in England, and therefore complaints may also be particularly high due to the number of patients these organisations treat.

The data shows that London has been the most affected area since before the pandemic, with eight Trusts appearing amongst the top 20 (with the highest number of maternity and midwifery complaints for the past two years).

In London, the Trusts with the highest number of complaints against maternity services and midwives in the past two years were:

1. Barts Health (929 complaints logged between 2019/20 and 2021/22)
2. Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (572)
3. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (550)
4. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (547)
5. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (490)

Once again, this may be due to high patient numbers here and the actual volume of maternity service complaints may be similar to other Trusts.

What do the most recent statistics say?

When analysing the most recent data, covering 2021/22, statistics show that it was Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, located in the East of England, which received the highest number of complaints against maternity services – 540 so far.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which was originally founded in 1992 as Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, was also third overall for maternity complaints in the past two years, with 918 recorded since 2019/20.

In second position in 2021/22 was Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, which is located in the North East, with 408 complaints logged against its maternity services.

In 2021/22 specifically, the Trusts with the highest numbers of recorded complaints against maternity and midwives were:

1. Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, East (540)
2. Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, North East (408)
3. Barts Health NHS Trust, London (320)
4. Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, South West (314)
5. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, South East (301)
6. North Bristol NHS Trust, South West (197)
7. Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, West Midlands (191)
8. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London (184)
9. Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust, South East and East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, East (182)
10. Princess Alexandra NHS Trust, East (176)

Overall, three out of the top 10 Trusts were located in the East of England, making it the area that has received the most complaints about its maternity services.

Which areas of maternity care require improvement according to patients?

As part of our research, we also sourced and reviewed the most recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) insight from its annual Maternity Survey, to identify which areas of care new mothers feel need improvement the most.

The data has shown that areas particularly affected when it comes to quality of care in 2021 were involvement of partners, choice, information provision and staff availability.

In previous surveys, the picture of maternity care in England had been one of year-on-year improvement but in 2021 there was a change in direction and results declined in many areas. The CQC believed that this was likely reflecting the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on services and staff.

The CQC survey showed that in 2021, slightly less than two thirds (65%) of women said that they were ‘always’ able to get a member of staff to help them if they needed it during labour and birth, down from 72% in 2019. Information provision around mental health postnatally was also identified as an area in need of improvement, as less than three-fifths of women (56%) were ‘definitely’ given information about any changes they might experience to their mental health after having their baby, which is down from 63% in 2019.

Additionally, a fifth (20%) of women said they were not offered any choices about where to have their baby. The majority of women (62%) were not given a choice about where their postnatal care would take place, much higher than 52% in 2019.

Our conclusion

There is no doubt the NHS is facing one of the biggest staffing crises in its history, with specific areas such as maternity services suffering high levels of understaffing.

This is not only a cause of immense stress for staff, who are having to deal with increased levels of pressure to deliver the treatment patients need, but it may pose a risk to new mothers and their babies.

While the pandemic may have certainly exacerbated some of the issues, our research has shown that maternity complaints have risen in the past year, and that issues such as the current staff shortages aren’t being tackled at a fast enough rate, as the high number of maternity negligence claims in the past year also suggests.

Bringing medical negligence cases to light is central to raising the standards across medical services and facilities when patients don’t receive the expected level of care.

If you think you have been the victim of medical negligence and want to talk about the possibility of making a claim, you can make an enquiry online or get in touch with our expert team of clinical negligence solicitors.

Further information can also be found on our medical negligence webpage.

How Been Let Down could help you:

The Been Let Down team have a team of experts that specialise in clinical negligence claims. If you think you have been the victim of birth injury negligence and want to talk about the possibility of making a claim, you can make an enquiry online or get in touch with our expert team of clinical negligence solicitors.

Further information can also be found on our birth injury compensation page.

You can make also request a callback at a time that suits you, or call us on 0800 234 3234