18 Monday April 4 2022 | the times
News
Health trusts still have dangerous
“tunnel vision” in their promotion of
so-called normal childbirth, according
to one of the leading campaigners who
prompted an inquiry into the NHS’s
worst maternity scandal.
Kayleigh Griffiths, who spent six
years fighting for Shrewsbury and Tel-
ford Hospital NHS Trust to be held
accountable for her daughter’s death,
told The Times that trusts should stop
referring to “normal births” when
recruiting midwives.
At least three trusts have been accus-
ed of continuing to promote vaginal
births over caesarean sections in adver-
tisements, despite last week’s report by
Donna Ockenden into failings at the
Shrewsbury and Telford trust. This
found that women were forced to have
natural births when they should have
been offered caesareans.
The Daily Telegraph reported that an
advertisement at Torbay and South
Devon hospital for midwives said: “We
are proud of our commitment to
normal birth.”
In another advertisement, the Aire-
dale NHS Foundation Trust in Keigh-Health trusts still risking
lives over ‘normal births’
ley, West Yorkshire, said successful can-
didates “will be able to demonstrate
their commitment and dedication to
women-centred care, promoting the
normal birth pathway and reducing
interventions”.
In southeast London, Lewisham and
Greenwich NHS Trust said in a recruit-
ment advertisement: “We are looking
for an enthusiastic team member to
help us promote normality.”
Responding to the adverts, Griffiths
said it appeared to her that hospital
trust senior administrators were
already failing to learn lessons from the
Ockenden report. “As a society we need
to move away from the idea of normal-
ity in childbirth because normal doesn’t
really exist,” she said. “Women need to
be told the full picture about childbirth
and not just the positive side of the pro-
cess. Hospital trusts are in danger of
having tunnel vision about normal
births.”
An NHS spokesman told The Sunday
Telegraph that the health service was
“aware of concerns regarding job
adverts and we will be contacting the
relevant trusts.” None of the three
hospitals responded to requests for
comment from The Times.Jonathan AmesMAX WILLCOCK/BNPSDon’t delay curbs
on tech giants,
ministers urged
Britain risks lagging behind the rest of
the world after shelving plans to give
the new digital regulator powers to
tackle the dominance of technology
companies, a senior MP and media
groups have warned.
The Digital Markets Unit was
launched last year to oversee the regu-
lation of companies such as Google and
Facebook as part of efforts to help pro-
tect other players, including news pub-
lishers, from unfair practices.
Ministers have said that the watch-
dog will have the power to block or
reverse anticompetitive behaviour in
advertising. It will be able to investigate
algorithms that discriminate against
popular news websites and is expected
to have powers to make companies pay
a fair price for news content.
The government had planned to in-
clude legislation to give the regulator a
statutory underpinning in the Queen’s
Speech. But that has been shelved and
legislation will not be introduced until
next year at the earliest.
Julian Knight, a Conservative MP
who is chairman of the digital, culture
and media committee, said: “I’m deeply
concerned. The Digital Markets Unit is
running in shadow form. If we’re seen
as laggards when it comes to bringing
forward legislation to bring competi-
tion to these enormous markets it
means we won’t have any place around
the table.
“We do need to come to some form of
longstanding arrangement for the ben-
efit of established news media organi-
sations who are having their content
used without any form of recompense.”
The EU is poised to push ahead with
its own Digital Markets Act, which will
force social media platforms and mes-
saging companies to open up their ser-
vices. They will also face tighter curbson using people’s data for targeted on-
line adverts, which is a significant
source of revenue for companies such
as Facebook and Google.
Australia has already introduced
laws forcing technology companies to
negotiate payments with the media in-
dustry for the use of their content. It has
led to deals between technology com-
panies and news publishers.
The News Media Association, which
represents national and regional pub-
lishers including The Times, co-
ordinated an open letter last week
urging the prime minister to include the
legislation in the Queen’s Speech. Sig-
natories included the BBC, ITN and
Channel 4 along with magazine com-
panies and radio outlets.
The letter said legislation would
“take the first step toward ensuring a
healthy future for independent media”
and “position the UK as a world leader
in tackling the imbalance of power
between media providers and the tech
platforms”. It added that any delay
“risks the UK slipping behind other
jurisdictions”.
It was claimed at the weekend that
the UK legislation was delayed after
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for
Brexit opportunities, objected that it
was poorly drafted. However, allies of
Rees-Mogg said he was in favour of the
bill but was being “framed” by govern-
ment figures who wanted to give priori-
ty to legislation paving the way to priva-
tising Channel 4. An ally of Rees-Mogg
told The Mail On Sunday: “No 10 told
culture secretary Nadine Dorries that
there wasn’t enough legislative time for
both measures.”
The Department for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport said: “Our pro-com-
petition regime will change the con-
duct of the most powerful tech firms.” It
added: “We cannot comment on time-
lines for potential future legislation.”Steven Swinford Political EditorThirsty work An Oxford Sandy and Black piglet is four weeks old and thriving as she is hand reared at Cholderton Rare
Breeds Farm near Salisbury. She was rejected by her mother at two days old and needed feeding every two hours at first