As I commented earlier this week a powerful consensus of clinicians and patients’ groups is emerging all arguing, for reasons of safety, for much greater centralisation of some hospital services.
The argument made by the RCOG, as with the other Royal Colleges, starts with the clinical case for safety. The case is based upon the difference in safety outcomes that occur when a specialist is in charge and when they are not. This is not to say that all births should take place through a specialist but it is to say that a service that has a specialist at hand is safer.
