Ruth-Anna MacQueen

Ruth-Anna works as a Consultant Obstetrician in East London, at the third largest maternity unit in England, serving a diverse population. She is lead for Maternity Governance and Obstetric Safety Champion. She also co-leads the service for women and birthing people requesting birth outside of standard guidance, and runs a specialist clinic for neurodivergent pregnant people.

From April 2017, Ruth was one of the first small cohort of maternity investigators to be trained up for the then newly commissioned HSIB Maternity Programme. She was the first Obstetrician to work in this role. During this time she was privileged to benefit from extensive training in systems-based investigations from Cranfield University.

In 2022, she was awarded an MSc with Distinction in Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors from Edinburgh University, as part of which she undertook original research into safety culture in maternity services.

Having worked as an HSIB maternity investigator, she has extensive experience in performing systems-focused, human factors driven investigations.

She has previously taught on human factors and investigates techniques for the highly-regarded Baby LifeLine Course on Learning From Adverse Events in Maternity, and the RCOG Labour Ward Lead ATSM Course, and run workshops on maternity quality and safety for senior midwives on the NHS England-commissioned Aspiring Midwifery Leaders Development Programme.