A health board's maternity services which were once described as "dysfunctional" and put babies and mothers at risk of harm have been taken out of special measures. Health Minister Eluned Morgan said she was satisfied that "clear progress" had been made in delivering improvements in "challenging circumstances".
In 2019 an investigation by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives - prompted by a consultant midwife who was concerned by an apparent under-reporting of serious incidents, including deaths of babies - unearthed a series of wide-ranging concerns about maternity care at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.
They discovered that maternity services at two of its hospitals - the Royal Glamorgan in Llantrisant and Prince Charles in Merthyr Tydfil - were "under extreme pressure", "dysfunctional", and were putting families and babies in danger. As a consequence the health board's maternity services were placed in special measures by the Welsh Government in April 2019 - the highest level of government control - and an independent panel was set up to oversee improvements.
