How many mothers and babies have to die for Patricia Hewitt to balance the books?

"It was the best year from the patients' point of view. More people were treated, faster than ever before and more lives were saved than ever before.

Of course it has been a difficult year for staff, as we have had to sort out the large over-spend. But it is now clear we are absolutely back on track to get the NHS into financial balance by the end of the year." (Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health)

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The more I listen to Patricia Hewitt, and her health care "truths", the more I feel trapped in an Orwellian vision of the future.

A horrifying report from today’s Independent on Sunday.

Record numbers of women are being harmed or dying as a direct result of childbirth in what doctors are labelling as “a crisis” in maternity care.

391 women have died in childbirth in the last three years, a 21% increase on the previous comparable period.



The UK now has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Europe, with 13 deaths per 100,000.



17676 women have suffered physical harm on labour wards in the last three years – harm such as perforated bowels, necessitation temporary colostomies.



Maternity medical negligence claims are costing the NHS £1 billion a year

It is all due to lack of resources and, as Dr Crippen never tires of saying, dumbing down.

• Midwives are doing work for which they are not trained; work that should be done by doctors.
  
  
• Health care assistants are doing work for which they are not trained; work that should be done my midwives.

How is the government dealing with this?

The Independent quotes the Department of Health as saying:

“Giving birth is safer than it has ever been.”

Patricia Hewitt said last year that the NHS had had its “best year ever”. This year, she has promised to “balance the books”; to get the NHS finances out of deficit.

"I'm not planning on failure"

In typical fashion, Ms Hewitt last year declared that she would "take personal responsibility" if she failed to balance the NHS books by this April, the end of the financial year.

Think about that last statement. She says she will "take personal responsibility". She is the Secretary of State for Health. She is responsible for the NHS.

And precisely how is she going to balance the books?

by closing maternity units
by sacking young hospital doctors who are training in obstetrics
by sacking midwives

How many more deaths do there have to be before Paricia Hewitt is sacked?


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And see Dr Rant's excellent take on this:

The reduction in maternal and child (infant and perinatal rates) mortality has been one of the heroic achievements of the NHS and of twentieth century medicine in general. My dad’s generation of doctors regularly saw women die of pregnancy complications such as incomplete abortion, placenta praevia, and placental abruption. My dad (and Nye Bevan and Professor Scott and Professor Donald, inter alia) would be revolving in their graves if they could see these figures. May their ghosts haunt the Department of Health

Full article here.