Hospitals in England are told to stop using caesarean rates to assess performance

Hospital chiefs in England have been told to stop using targets for caesarean section rates over patient safety concerns.

In a letter to trust medical directors and maternity units, NHS England and NHS Improvement said hospitals should no longer use “total caesarean section rates as a means of performance management” because it may lead to targets being pursued that “may be clinically inappropriate or unsafe in individual cases.”

The advice comes after a report from the Health and Social Care Select Committee into the safety of maternity services, published in July 2021, recommended an immediate end to the …