Baroness Amos and her Independent Maternity Review team are to meet those in charge of maternity services in Brighton in January.
The date was announced by Andy Heeps, the interim chief executive of University Hospitals Sussex, the NHS trust that runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
The review will cover all four of the trust’s maternity units. The others are at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH), in Haywards Heath, Worthing Hospital and St Richard’s Hospital, in Chichester.
Dr Heeps said that Baroness Amos and her team would meet senior maternity leaders and the trust’s executive team on Tuesday 20 January and Wednesday 21 January.
The government announced the former cabinet minister’s appointment in August, saying: “Baroness Valerie Amos has been appointed by the Health and Social Care Secretary to lead the national maternity and neonatal investigation.
“The review will identify ways to urgently improve care and safety. Bereaved and harmed families will be central to the investigation, including working with the chair to shape her team of expert advisers and the terms of reference.”
In a report to the hospital trust board last week and to the trust’s council of governors yesterday (Thursday 20 November), Dr Heeps said: “I joined a national briefing with Baroness Valerie Amos and her Independent Maternity Review team held to provide more information about the review process.
“Baroness Amos reaffirmed that the review’s focus is on understanding systemic challenges that affect maternity safety across England and identifying what needs to change nationally, not about blame or individual accountability.
“She was clear that the process should be constructive and learning-focused, acknowledging the anxiety that investigations of this kind create for staff.
“The review team recognises the cumulative impact of recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections, regulatory reviews and media coverage across many trusts and intends to conduct visits in a way that does not further damage morale.
“Our maternity service has demonstrated significant, independently verified improvement in safety, staffing and patient experience since our units were downgraded by the CQC in 2021.
“This review is therefore an important opportunity for us to demonstrate this progress and the seriousness with which we continue to approach learning and improvement in maternity services.”
The CQC made an unannounced visit to inspect maternity services at the PRH on Wednesday (19 November).
Dr Heeps said yesterday (Thursday 20 November): “We’ve recently had all four of our units inspected by the CQC. They came unannounced to the PRH yesterday.
“We’re awaiting publication of the reports for the Royal Sussex County and Worthing which we hope will be in the next week or so.
“I’m confident that they will show improvements from where we were when we were last inspected.”
He said: “We’ve made a lot of improvements in our maternity services over the past three years.
“We have among the lowest perinatal mortality rates in the country. We’ve really stabilised our maternity staff.”
The coroner’s court has held inquests into several deaths of babies at or shortly after delivery, highlighting problems linked to staffing levels, experience and expertise in dealing with problems when they arise and mothers feeling unheard when they raise concerns.
