POOR quality NHS maternity care will become “normalised” if action is not taken, the healthcare watchdog warned today.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) called for “increased national action” and ring-fenced investment to turn services around as it published the findings of 131 inspections across England.

“Although we’ve seen examples of good care and seen hard-working, compassionate staff doing their best, we remain concerned that key issues continue to impact quality and safety,” the CQC report says.

“We cannot allow an acceptance of shortfalls that are not tolerated in other services.”

In inspections carried out between August 2022 and December 2023, a staggering 48 per cent of maternity units were judged either inadequate or requiring improvement, while 48 per cent of units were rated good and only 4 per cent outstanding, according to the report.

Inspections raised the greatest concern over safety, with almost two-thirds of maternity units judged to be inadequate or requiring improvement and not a single service rated outstanding, amid concerns over “the potential normalising of serious harm in maternity.” They also said that the ageing maternity care estate is often “not fit for purpose.”

Ahead of the report’s publication, Health Secretary Wes Streeting branded maternity services a “cause for national shame.”

He said: “When it comes to the crisis in our maternity services across the country, it is one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night worrying about the quality of care being delivered today at the risk of disaster greeting women in labour tomorrow.”

Royal College of Midwives chief executive Gill Walton noted that reports raising concerns had been ignored for a decade.

She said: “As a midwife, reading this report makes me both incredibly sad for every woman and family that hasn’t received the level of care they should and for every midwife and maternity support worker trying to do their best in a system that they feel is broken.

“It also makes me angry that, despite all the evidence, little has been done to resolve these issues effectively.

“Wes Streeting has said that maternity safety keeps him awake at night — me too.

“So let’s work together — the government and the RCM, with those delivering care — to make it better.”

NHS chief midwifery officer Kate Brintworth accepted that “NHS maternity care simply isn’t at the level they should expect and there is a lot to do to improve.”

NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley insisted that trust are “committed” to improving maternity but “need sufficient and sustained investment,” including in staffing and facilities.