Speaking at a fringe event at the Labour party’s annual conference, Jacque Gerrard told delegates that almost half of the NHS negligence bill is accounted for by claims relating to poor maternity services.
"We need NHS staff to behave differently," she explained. "Three or four years ago, people would have thrown their hands up in horror at the thought of inviting men to stay overnight on the post-natal ward. But actually there have been two maternity centres in the country that have embraced that concept. It has freed up midwives to give direct care and complaints have plummeted."
Gerrard added that maternity services would also improve if professionals did more to treat women as "partners", by actively involving them in planning the details of their own care.
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