NHS Forth Valley chief to lead Scotland’s maternity review

A review of Scotland’s maternity and neonatal services will be led by NHS Forth Valley chief executive Jane Grant, it has been announced.

Innovation and best practice in services will be examined by the review, which was announced in February.

Grant comes from a background in NHS management in Lanarkshire and Glasgow before becoming chief executive of NHS Forth Valley in 2013.

She was pleased to accept the invitation from Public Health minister Maureen Watt, she said.

“We will talk to families who use the services, and the professionals who deliver them. Our aim is to identify a series of recommendations that will seek to enhance services so that the health service can continue to deliver safe, efficient and sustainable services for women and their babies,” she added.

Watt said the review would consider new approaches to making services better and safer.

“The services we provide to women and babies are excellent and safe, but changes to the birth rate, demographics new best practice and guidelines, along with advances in clinical care and treatment, mean they must be adapted and updated,” she said.

Grant will now select members of the expert review group, which is expected to publish its findings next summer.