From Medicine to Transforming Maternal Care

Dr Deborah Horner, Class of 1995

“When it became clear that no other organisation was addressing these critical gaps, I knew action was needed.”

Every career in medicine is built on a desire to help people. For Dr Deborah Horner, that commitment has become a mission to transform maternal critical care across the UK, ensuring that women experiencing serious illness during pregnancy and childbirth receive the specialist support they need.

After leaving LEH in 1995, Deborah studied Medicine at the University of Leeds before completing postgraduate training in anaesthesia and critical care in West Yorkshire. Alongside building her medical career, she balanced family life, training part-time while raising her two children. In 2014, she became a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care in Bradford, specialising in maternal critical care.

Female healthcare worker in blue scrubs standing in a hospital corridor with medical equipment in the background.

Seeing a problem – and having the courage to solve it

Working in Bradford exposed Deborah to the realities of healthcare inequalities and the challenges facing maternity services. Deborah quickly realised that providing the right care at the right time required close collaboration between specialist teams, and that coordinated care could make the difference between life and death.

“Ensuring women received the right care, in the right place, from staff with the right skills could make the difference between life and death.”

As her experience grew, Deborah recognised that the issues facing Bradford reflected a much wider national picture. Across the UK, maternity services were caring for increasingly complex cases, while national reviews continued to highlight gaps in care for critically ill women. Rather than accepting the status quo, she became determined to help improve it.

Bold Futures Start Here.

From LEH classroom to a career in medicine

In 2018, Deborah helped establish the Yorkshire and Humber Maternal Enhanced and Critical Care (MEaCC) Steering Group, bringing together healthcare professionals to improve clinical guidelines, deliver specialist training and collect vital data on women who become critically unwell during or shortly after pregnancy.

The work revealed an important but often overlooked reality. At least one in ten women experiences serious illness during or after pregnancy, highlighting the need for greater awareness, education and specialist care. Yet Deborah realised another challenge remained. While many organisations focused on maternity care, none existed solely to support women experiencing critical illness during pregnancy. So she decided to create one.

Working alongside nationally recognised experts, Deborah founded METERNAL: The Maternal Critical Care Alliance, a charity dedicated to improving care, influencing national policy and providing education and support for women, their families and the professionals who care for them.

An LEH education takes you beyond the syllabus

Deborah believes LEH gave her more than an excellent academic education. It instilled the confidence to tackle unfamiliar challenges and the belief that meaningful change is possible when people work together with determination and purpose. Launching a national charity was a completely new experience, requiring skills far beyond clinical medicine, but one she embraced because the need was simply too great to ignore.

“My time at LEH instilled the belief that with effort and determination, nothing is beyond reach.”

Today, those same qualities of resilience, curiosity and leadership continue to shape her work as she seeks to improve outcomes for women across the UK.

Creating change beyond the hospital

Deborah’s story demonstrates that leadership in medicine isn’t only about treating patients. Sometimes it means identifying gaps in healthcare, bringing people together and creating entirely new ways of improving lives.

Through METERNAL, she is helping to shape the future of maternal critical care, ensuring more women receive safe, coordinated and compassionate care during one of the most important moments of their lives.

Her LEH journey is a reminder that lasting impact often begins with asking one simple question: How can this be better?

Fearless Futures

What would Deborah’s advice be to current LEH students?

Don’t be afraid to tackle problems that don’t yet have solutions.

Some of the most meaningful opportunities come from recognising where change is needed and having the courage to take the first step. Your career may lead you into unexpected territory, but if you’re driven by purpose, willing to learn new skills and prepared to collaborate with others, you can make a lasting difference.

“Setting up a charity has been a steep learning curve… yet my time at LEH instilled the belief that with effort and determination, nothing is beyond reach.”