A Healthcare Improvement Scotland report on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has found that expectant mothers had faced delays of up to 190 hours before being induced and that the consequences were serious.
Delays increased the risk of sepsis, led to more complicated births and, in some cases, resulted in women giving birth in areas not equipped to deal with complications or provide appropriate pain relief.
Anas Sarwar told MSPs: “Between 2019 and 2025, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde alone recorded 736 serious adverse events in maternity and neonatal services. Tragically, 406 of those involved a death. What immediate steps is John Swinney’s Government taking to keep women and babies safe?”
“In relation to the report on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s maternity services, which include West Dunbartonshire, I am concerned—as are ministers—about the issues that it raises. Although the report highlights a number of positive aspects of the delivery of care, it also highlights significant areas for improvement.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care, Angela Constance, has already met Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to relay the Government’s concern and to ensure that all 26 of the report’s requirements are taken forward urgently by the health board, and we have had reassurance on those issues.
“The cabinet secretary will meet the chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde again before the parliamentary recess to review progress and to receive further reassurance that steps have been taken to implement the report’s requirements.
“Julie Keegan, who lost her baby boy, and Lori Quate, who lost both his wife and his unborn child, were promised that they would be involved in the work of the task force and the review.
“Seven months on, despite those promises, the families affected have heard nothing. Will John Swinney now commit that the already delayed review will meaningfully involve the women and the families who have first-hand experience of the failures of Scotland’s maternity services?”
John Swinney replied: “I give Mr Sarwar such an assurance. In response to the recommendations that were made in connection with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, an approach has been taken that has resulted in most, if not all, of the recommendations in the report being implemented. In addition, midwife employment has been increased to ensure that some of the other capacity issues are properly addressed.
“The Government committed to the establishment of a maternity and neonatal task force, and steps were taken at the start of this year to take forward that agenda. Ministers are very happy for there to be family engagement with the review—indeed, they would think that essential—and I give an assurance that that will be the case.
“With regard to the specific families that Mr Sarwar mentioned, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care has committed to meeting those families, and I know that she will undertake that engagement.”
“John Swinney often tells us that the pressures on the national health service are unprecedented, but the women in question were not failed by a virus or by bad luck—they were failed by a system that knew that there was a problem and did not act quickly enough to fix it.
“Time and again, we see the same cycle. Warnings are raised, whistleblowers speak out, patients suffer, ministers promise that lessons will be learned, a review is commissioned, and then the next scandal arrives. That it has taken seven months to appoint a chair is not good enough, when every day that passes without action risks another adverse incident and another broken family.
“The review needs to be more than just a process—it needs to improve services. When will John Swinney be able to guarantee that all women and babies will be safe in maternity services across the country?”
“Crucially, when those reviews identify recommendations, the Government discusses those recommendations with the relevant health boards to ensure that they are implemented. That is the case with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
“Also, the patterns of evidence that come out of those reports are drawn out and are then the subject of a focus on improvement with all health boards in Scotland.
“I say that to Parliament to provide reassurance to families that, when those reports are undertaken by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, they result in learning and in the application of processes by health boards around the country, to ensure that we constantly focus on improving services.”
That was what the Government is trying to do in the delivery of maternity services — “crucially, the work of Healthcare Improvement Scotland helps us to scrutinise and identify weaknesses so that they can be addressed and recommendations implemented. That will be the approach that the Government continues to take.”