TY - JOUR T1 - Women and Children First JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 443 LP - 443 DO - 10.3399/bjgp15X686365 VL - 65 IS - 638 AU - Roger Jones Y1 - 2015/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/65/638/443.abstract N2 - From time to time our national love affair with the NHS needs a reality check. Health outcomes in the UK often fall short of those in many comparable Western European countries, and of what we would, ideally, wish. The focus recently has been on cancer survival figures which, despite protestations about different registration systems, do not tell an entirely happy story. Let’s hope that the new NICE guidance on early cancer diagnosis, which needs to be accompanied by better resources and better-integrated referral systems for GPs, makes a difference: Jon Emery and Peter Vedsted provide a valuable commentary on this important publication. This month, however, we focus attention on another contentious area of health care in the UK, that of mother and child health.Our leading editorial by Judy Shakespeare and Marian Knight, on the UK Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths, … ER -