§ Mrs. Ann Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list those district and regional health authorities which have so far not appointed non-medical members to their maternity services liaison committees;
(2) what steps he intends to take to ensure that district health authorities appoint non-medical members to their maternity services liaison committees;
(3) if he will set a deadline by which time district health authorities must have appointed non-medical members to their maternity services liaison committees.
§ Mr. John Patten[pursuant to his reply, 27 February 1985, c. 220]: The Maternity Services Advisory Committee strongly recommended that every district health authority should establish and maintain a maternity services liaison committee to help implement, in the light of local circumstances, the MSAC's advice on good practice. The committee should act as a multi-disciplinary forum, reaching agreement between the different professionals — midwives, nurses, and doctors — and drawing on the experience of users of the maternity services. The MSAC suggested that such a committee might wish to meet in two forms: as a professional group when clinical and confidential matters were to be discussed, and with a wider membership including lay people for all other purposes.
We have asked health authorities who have not already set up such committees to consider doing so, and we will be monitoring action taken on this, and other advice contained in the MSAC's three reports, through the accountability review process. Decisions on membership are for health authorities to take. We do not currently hold centrally information on how many committees have been established or on their composition.