Health Secretary Neil Gray has said the Scottish Government is “open” to a national review of maternity services following a series of safety scandals and renewed calls from bereaved parents for a countrywide inquiry.
Mr Gray told MSPs that while a series of local inspections of every maternity unit in Scotland is already under way, ministers would consider a wider review if it is recommended by the new Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce.
“We are open to a wider national review of maternity services,” he said. “However, we already have a series of local inspections of every maternity unit in Scotland under way.”
Speaking after meeting Lori Quate who lost his wife and baby, Mr Gray thanked all families impacted by maternity service failures for sharing their experiences and acknowledged that “trust has been broken”.
“Women in Scotland have the right to choose where they give birth,” he said. “Those who choose our hospitals can be assured they are the safest possible places to give birth with access to the best possible care. But improvements must be made urgently.”
Mr Gray said he is exploring how to ensure families’ voices are heard through the Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) inspection process, and confirmed he will raise the issue directly with the Patient Safety Commissioner next week.
“The government remains absolutely open and willing to do everything necessary to improve the services women and babies receive,” he added.
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His comments came as grieving parents gathered in Holyrood today to call for a nationwide inquiry into maternity services, warning of a “toxic culture” within the NHS that has “shielded and protected” failings for years.
Julie Keegan, an ICU nurse whose three-day-old son Mason died following failings at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said a lack of accountability meant “nobody ever faces consequences” in the health service.
“These people are letting our babies die, and they’re going to work the next day,” Ms Keegan told PA News Agency, “If a baby died anywhere else the police would be investigating, not work colleagues. There seems to be this ‘no blame game’ in the NHS where nobody gets any blame ever.”
Mason died in 2023 from sepsis and related feeding issues after medics failed to recognise how unwell he was. A review found incomplete records and problems with temperature monitoring and access to equipment.
Ms Keegan was joined at the Scottish Parliament by Lori Quate, whose wife Jacqui died from an amniotic fluid embolism after giving birth to their daughter Olivia who was stillborn.
It later emerged Jacqui was given eight times the recommended dose of a drug used to induce labour at NHS Tayside in 2020.
Mr Quate said only a national inquiry could uncover the systemic failings that have allowed similar tragedies to occur across the country.
“These are identical stories and fatal outcomes,” he told PA, “It shouldn’t take fatal outcomes to say it’s not good enough.”
There have also been warnings from campaigners who told The Herald that there could be a death if maternity services in Wigtownshire are not improved as weather and road conditions worsen.
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie led a debate at Holyrood, urging ministers to establish a nationwide review to run alongside the government’s existing taskforce.
She said the issue “transcends party politics” and warned of “systemic failures” across Scotland’s maternity services.
“Too often the response to these tragedies is a veil of secrecy,” Ms Baillie said. “Midwives and other frontline staff are doing their best, but they are being set up to fail.”
Ms Baillie cited the cases of mothers in rural areas forced to travel hundreds of miles to give birth, describing Raigmore Hospital in Inverness as “bursting at the seams”.
She said Orkney’s Unicef gold-standard maternity unit showed “it can be done” when proper support is in place.
Lynsey Hamilton, Labour’s candidate for Clydesdale who lost her second child after symptoms of pre-eclampsia were missed, said incidents across different health boards showed the problem was “not just about Edinburgh or Glasgow or Ninewells or Wishaw — it’s about maternity and the culture that has developed over years”.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it had accepted the findings of Mason McLean’s review and apologised to his family, while NHS Tayside expressed “deep sorrow” for the deaths of Jacqui and Olivia Hunter, saying all recommendations from internal and external reviews had been implemented.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland is currently inspecting every maternity unit in Scotland as part of its national safe delivery programme.
