We (Kayleigh, Colin, Richard and I) were asked to join a meeting with the SoS for Health, Wes Streeting, after work today.  In attendance were so many families that have been devastated in very recent years by the catastrophic state of maternity services in England, (England only)…babies killed, mothers blamed, families destroyed.  

We saw them all.  We held space for them all.  We grieved for their experiences and wished the work we have done since 2009 and 2016 had had greater impact.  That is hasn't personally impacts us hugely.  What more could we have done for the prevention of harm to their families?

If this was any story in the UK other than maternity, the entire news agenda would be given over to it 24/7 - so many avoidable deaths.

We weren’t sure of the agenda – I mean, you only get the link to join the meeting a couple of hours before!  But … anticipated it would reflect what followed the meeting we had in December.  

In December, Mr Streeting said he was poised to make announcements about how to improve maternity services.  He then didn’t make any announcement.  He later advised he was revising the anticipated announcement … suggesting, very much, that he had reflected on the parental experiences we’d all shared with him - and planned to make changes for the better.

And then he seemingly slashed the funding the SaTH families’ experiences had secured for maternity services from £95m to £2m…WTAF.

Fast forward a bit – clumsy comms from his team backtracking - and then today.  

It was evident to us four, at least, that Mr Streeting has had his arms twisted this way and that by ‘the system’ – i.e., those puppet masters who go from Trust to Trust, NHS role to NHS role.  Elevated by their ability to bullshit and manipulate.  Cover up and obfuscate.  THEY are the ones who ensure change happens not and babies die aplenty.

Ideas for NO CHANGE could include:

Restorative justice anyone?  
Shit hospitals helping even shitter ones (to cover up better)?  
Happy patients pushing a smiley face button when they leave hospital with less than a dead baby in order to benchmark quality?  You know, like the loos in M and S.

But Mr Streeting seems to want to make huge lasting change.  His heart and soul are in it – even as he is manipulated and threatened and – who knows what by those he is meant to be in charge of but who are far more powerful and plentiful than he.  

Read any political thriller and he could be the pawn in any of them.

But he (and we) should NOT have been the pawn at the meeting.  But because someone – who? – had leaked what he wanted us to consult openly and frankly but confidentially on to one small group of families and their PR company … well. Ambushed we all were.  

So.  Where does that leave the 37,088 of you incredible people who agree we need to get to the root cause of the issues in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England because the origin of every baby is equal.  Mr. Streeting was 100% on board in terms of wanting to identify root causes.  And 100% on board with the families on the call who STILL haven’t been supported to understand what happened in their respective cases.

But the way the meeting was manipulated was deeply distressing.

I don't understand why anyone would do that.