Head of maternity review says bereaved parents will be listened to

Professor Christine McCourt, a maternal and child health expert, said it was important to talk to a range of people in order to learn from their experiences.

It comes after families of babies and mothers who died as a result of failings in their care condemned the remit of the long-awaited review, with more than 4,300 signing a petition calling for its approach to be broadened.

Julie Keegan, whose three-day-old son Mason died after a series of failings in his care under NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in January 2023, previously told Scotland on Sunday: “It feels like it’s going to be a complete waste of time if it’s just going to be a forward looking model, it’s an absolute insult.”

READ MORE: Scotland's Maternity Crisis: Bereaved families fear independent review will be 'waste of time'

Speaking to the BBC, Prof McCourt said: “It's not part of our remit to investigate individual cases. But there's a great potential to learn from people's experience, especially if you actually talk to a range of people.

"You can draw out the patterns in the general lessons. What led to a poor outcome in the first place, and then what happened afterwards? The aim here is to actually draw the right lessons for improvement, and so their experiences can really be valuable in terms of that.”

The Scottish government said the review will consider the "direct experiences of women, families and staff at every level of care".

The review will look at how maternity services can better meet women’s needs, including how care is provided in rural and island areas. It will also address the higher maternal mortality rates of black and Asian women, and review how health boards engage with their communities on maternity service decisions.

While its full scope and terms of reference have yet to be published, its stated principles specify it will be “forward-looking,” and note that it will be “informed by the experiences of women, families and staff”.

An England-wide independent national maternity and neonatal investigation by Baroness Amos, which published its final report earlier this summer, conducted reviews of 12 NHS trusts, and heard from more than 450 families and over 9,000 staff through surveys, site visits and one-to-one discussions.

READ MORE: Scotland's Maternity Crisis: Series of failings 'deeply concerning'

Prof McCourt said Scotland has different challenges.

"You've got a much more dispersed population in Scotland,” she told the BBC. “So thinking about how to cater for the more rural areas where you've got long distances, and you've got a smaller population concentration, that's quite different from most of England.

"So there are going to be things that are quite distinct about Scotland, as well as the fact that you do have devolution in the health system."

She said the review is “completely independent, so we have that capacity to feel totally free to say what we need to say”, adding: "You can't run an effective health service with staff who are excessively anxious, as well as not having the right mix of staff and the right numbers of staff."