Maternity Services: Safety

(asked on 13th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch maternity investigations were opened between April 2018 and September 2018; and how many of those investigations were completed in that period.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 21st May 2019

The 2019-20 baseline budget for the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) maternity programme has been finalised and HSIB have been informed of the outcome.

The average cost of a HSIB maternity investigation is £19,000 per investigation. This includes the cost of clinical expertise and training for maternity investigators to lead professional investigations.

69 investigations were referred to the HSIB between 1 April and 30 September 2018. No investigations were completed in that period as the Maternity Directions requires investigations to be completed in six months and there were no referrals received in the first month of the HSIB implementing the maternity programme.

As from 1 April 2019, the HSIB maternity investigations programme is fully staffed and operational in every healthcare region in England. At the end of April 2019, 147.6 whole time equivalent staff are employed by the HSIB to conduct maternity investigations. There are no staff positions vacant and the figures exclude support from corporate services.

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