A powerful editorial has just been published in The Lancet - a major player in publishing highest quality medical research. Its impact factor (which is essentially a calculated number of other paper using the citations published in the journal) is currently 79 - placing it currently on a 3rd place of most powerful medical journals. So a big fish.

The editorial comments the on aftermath of the tragic events that were investigated and summarised in the Ockender review, which looked into the quality of the Maternity Services at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. It is difficult to summarise the results of this review, but in short - these services failed women. From the basic failures in the medical care, to absolutely appalling experiences that women had while receiving healthcare services. And although there are many reasons that this has occurred (including COVID and staff shortages and fatigue) this report highlights yet another area where the systems fail women.