'Opportunity to reform NI's maternity services missed'

An opportunity to reform maternity services in Northern Ireland has been missed, the author of a review has said.

It comes after a government review found that maternity services in England are "not set up to deliver consistently safe, high-quality and compassionate care".

Prof Mary Renfrew, who carried out a review of services in Northern Ireland in October 2024, is calling for "urgent transformation".

The Department of Health said it is committed to improving the safety, quality and governance of maternity services, and work is underway including implementation of the recommendations in Renfrew's report.

Renfrew said the recommendations from her report were "hugely accepted as the right way forward".

She said there was "phenomenal support" for the report and it felt "optimistic".

"From where I am looking at the moment, there are some small steps forward," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster.

"But we haven't yet seen the whole system, whole region action plan that's needed to transform care and transform experiences for staff.

"Taking all that work which involved hundreds and hundreds of people over the months in which we gathered the information for this report and not using it, not building on it, not implementing the recommendations is hugely disappointing."