Today I was due to meet Karen Titchener, the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland but I decided to leave that to the amazing harmed, bereaved and family's who campaign for Scotland's Maternity Safety. Below is the email I sent to Karen on my thoughts regarding the Scotland's Maternity Review being conducted by Prof Christine McCourt. (thread) Dear Karen and all, (29/9/2026) I wanted to let you know that I will not be attending the meeting on Thursday. I believe it is important that the meeting gives space to the amazing women and families attending, and to the work they are individually doing to highlight maternity and neonatal safety from their own perspectives. I wholeheartedly support their campaigns, their pursuit of justice and, most importantly, the shared objective of reducing maternal, intrauterine and neonatal death and avoidable harm across Scotland. That should ultimately be the key driver for change. However, before stepping away from Thursday’s meeting, I would like to formally record my concerns regarding the Independent Review of Maternity Services in Scotland. These concerns have increased following my meeting with Professor Christine McCourt and as a Midwife in the NHS for 6.5 years and that of a mother who has birthed over 18 years in 4 different settings, including Ninewells in Dundee. I recognise the importance of having a Chair who is independent from the NHS services being examined. However, independence must extend beyond simply appointing somebody from outside NHS Scotland. There must also be transparency around appointment, commissioning, funding, governance, methodology, data processing and the relationship between the review, the Scottish Government and any academic institution involved. During my meeting with Professor McCourt, she told me directly that she was offered the role. Not interviewed. Selected. Caitlyn can verify, she would not freely tell us who appointed her. My understanding from that conversation is that she did not go through an open competitive recruitment process involving advertisement of the position and assessment against other candidates by an independent selection panel.

🚨 EAST SUSSEX HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST — SOMETHING ISN’T ADDING UP Yesterday, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust published an article entitled: “Recognising Exceptional Leadership in Maternity Services.” But the amount of midwives who have reached out to me about this trust is becoming impossible to ignore. Because while leadership is being publicly celebrated, I am hearing a very different story from some of the people working underneath it. Midwives struggling. Midwives raising concerns about workplace culture. Midwives talking about management and what happens when staff challenge decisions or speak up. And then you look at what is already in the public record. The CQC previously rated Eastbourne Midwife Unit Requires Improvement overall AND Requires Improvement for safety. In 2023, the Eastbourne unit was reportedly closed for births on 87 days — almost a quarter of the entire year — because of staffing pressures. One woman described having to travel approximately 20 miles by taxi to Conquest Hospital while in labour because the unit was closed. And ESHT’s own maternity board reporting has previously documented four perinatal-death cases — two involving preterm birth and another two referred to HSIB where the babies were believed to have been alive at the beginning of labour but were subsequently born with no signs of life. The Trust reported that it reviewed these cases and identified no trends. So I think there are legitimate questions to ask. What exactly does “exceptional leadership” look like? Because awards, plaques, photographs and press releases tell us very little about the culture experienced by the people actually working underneath senior management. A healthy maternity service doesn’t just celebrate its leaders. It listens to its midwives. It protects people who raise concerns. It learns when women or babies are harmed. It examines staffing and safety. And it doesn’t confuse silence with success. And there is something else people should be watching. 👀 An upcoming 10-DAY Employment Tribunal involving TWO midwives and East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is approaching. The allegations and evidence in those proceedings will be matters for the Tribunal to determine, so I won’t prejudge the outcome. But I will be watching the evidence closely. Because when midwives repeatedly come forward describing concerns about culture, management and what happens when staff speak up, their voices deserve to be heard. These hospitals need to be very careful that they are not rewarding conformity while marginalising challenge. Don’t crown people simply because everything appears quiet beneath them. Sometimes quiet doesn’t mean everything is okay. Sometimes people have simply stopped feeling safe enough to speak. So don’t just tell the public that leadership is exceptional. SHOW US. Show us the staffing. Show us the outcomes. Show us the grievances. Show us how whistleblowers are treated. Show us what happens when somebody challenges management. And show us what lessons have actually been learned when things go wrong. Because if the picture being presented publicly is radically different from what frontline midwives are describing privately, that discrepancy deserves scrutiny. East Sussex midwives — keep talking. And as for that approaching 10-day Employment Tribunal involving two midwives…