Prof Mary Renfrew, who led a major review of Northern Ireland’s maternity services, has warned that a crucial chance to overhaul the system is being lost. Her report, completed in October 2024, identified serious weaknesses alongside real strengths and called for an urgent transformation.

The review was commissioned after a coroner’s inquest into the death of baby Jaxon McVey in March 2017, which found failings at Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn. Renfrew’s report set out 32 recommendations and a five-year programme for change. She said there was phenomenal support for the findings and widespread acceptance that they represented the right way forward.

However, speaking this week, she said only small steps had been taken and that a comprehensive, region-wide action plan involving all key players had yet to emerge. Taking all the detailed work and not building on it would be hugely disappointing, she added. Renfrew noted that Northern Ireland, due to its small scale, has a genuine opportunity to implement the changes effectively.

Alliance Party MLA Nuala McAllister, a member of Stormont’s health committee, described it as difficult to hear how little progress had been made. She said some recommendations were being overlooked because of a lack of capacity amid what she called a mess of services. McAllister pointed to the delay in constructing a new maternity hospital in Belfast and last week’s temporary suspension of maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital as examples of persistent problems. She added that the health committee is now asking for an update on the status of the recommendations.

The Department of Health said it remains committed to improving the safety, quality and governance of maternity services and that work on implementing the review’s recommendations is under way.