\n<\/p>\n
Horrific failings led to 520 mothers and babies in Nottingham suffering harm or dying, sparking calls for a public inquiry into maternity care across England.<\/p>\n
In all, 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered \u201cpotentially avoidable\u201d outcomes, a damning three-year long review of the biggest childbirth scandal in NHS history concluded.<\/p>\n
James Murray, the health secretary, said the nature and scale of the failings exposed by Donna Ockenden\u2019s report on maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH) between 2012 and 2025 were \u201chorrific\u201d and \u201cchilling\u201d.<\/p>\n
Families suffered \u201cdangerously and tragically deficient care at almost every turn\u201d and \u201cthe NHS failed them catastrophically\u201d, said Murray. He was \u201cdevastated\u201d and \u201cheartbroken\u201d to read Ockenden\u2019s 401-page account of the \u201cneglect, incompetence, racism, discrimination, contempt and harassment that so many suffered\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ockenden, a respected maternity safety expert, painted a stark and detailed picture of maternity care at NUH\u2019s two hospitals, Queen\u2019s medical centre and Nottingham city hospital. \u201cMultiple\u201d women experienced dangerously poor and sometimes \u201ccruel\u201d care there, understaffing was routine, lessons from patient safety incidents were not learned, and bullying by \u201cintimidating cliques\u201d of staff was rife, she found.<\/p>\n
The Nottingham Maternity Families group, which represents about 600 harmed and bereaved families, asked Keir Starmer to establish a statutory public inquiry to investigate failings in maternity and neonatal care across the entire NHS \u201cbecause safe care can only be consistently delivered when the full truth is known\u201d.<\/p>\n
The government is considering that request, Murray said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we should take anything off the table at this stage,\u201d he said when pressed on the possibility of such an investigation.<\/p>\n
But he stressed that affected families do not all support such a move. \u201cWhen I\u2019ve been talking to families, some want a public inquiry, others take a different view, but what unites all of the families I spoke to is a desire for accountability and a desire to see change happen in the way maternity services are delivered so that women are listened to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ockenden and her team of maternity experts investigated the deaths of 27 mothers between 2006 and 2024 and \u201cidentified failures in care that may have or substantially impacted on the outcome in six deaths\u201d.<\/p>\n
Staff not listening to women or acting promptly on concerns they raised was one of the \u201ccommon failures\u201d involved in maternal deaths, they found, as well as delays in women having scans.<\/p>\n
Sajid Javid, the then health secretary, ordered the review in 2022 after families warned that maternity care at NUH care was unsafe. It also examined cases in which babies died as a result of being starved of oxygen during birth or from a hospital-acquired infection, or because midwives and doctors did not manage the mother\u2019s labour properly or provided poor postnatal care.<\/p>\n
Detailed examinations of the deaths of 31 newborn babies concluded that they had received inadequate care and that, if they had been handled differently, they would probably have avoided coming to harm.<\/p>\n
The report lays bare a host of recurring failings in clinical care that put mothers and babies at risk and in some cases had catastrophic consequences. They included repeated failures to monitor babies properly during labour, misinterpretation of CTG trace-reading of the baby\u2019s health while still in utero, not recognising when babies were in distress, and midwives not escalating worrying cases urgently to doctors to make rapid decisions on the care and treatment needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a number of cases these failures contributed to severe neonatal injury, stillbirth and neonatal death,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n
In all, 2,536 families and 838 current or former NUH staff gave evidence to the review team. It also found that:<\/p>\n
A \u201cbullying and toxic culture\u201d persisted at NUH over many years and impeded moves to improve care.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Maternity service managers and the trust\u2019s senior leaders were repeatedly warned about a host of serious problems in the maternity units at both hospitals but did not take effective action.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Maternity staff displayed \u201ca culture of not admitting women who were seeking admission in labour\u201d, despite the risks this posed to them and their babies.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Both maternity units were consistently seriously short-staffed and could not cope with the number of births and complexity of cases they had to handle.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
One baby girl who died early in gestation was \u201cinadvertently disposed of as clinical waste by laboratory staff after her postmortem examination\u201d, compounding her parents\u2019 distress.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Families told Ockenden about horrific experiences they had. Some were denied pain relief, or given too little. \u201cIt felt brutal \u2026 traumatic \u2026 They were screaming at me: \u2018You need to pull yourself together,\u2019\u201d one woman said.<\/p>\n
In behaviour that Ockenden said was sometimes \u201ccruel\u201d and lacking compassion, staff could be dismissive of women\u2019s concerns. One said she was told: \u201cIs this your first baby? Take some paracetamol and have a hot bath.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nottingham Maternity Families group said the need for a full public inquiry, with the power to compel witnesses to attend, was underlined by the \u201cappalling\u201d refusal of so many senior figures, in the trust and local NHS bodies who were overseeing it, to talk to Ockenden.<\/p>\n
Almost half of the 66 current and former NUH executives it asked to engage with the inquiry did not do so, despite many being asked \u201con multiple occasions\u201d. The response was even worse among leaders in the NHS clinical commissioning group and integrated care boards \u2013 only four of 14 contacted did talk.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n
Sign up to First Edition<\/span><\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Ockenden described the trust as dysfunctional, badly run and determined to hide from public view the dangerous truth about care in its maternity units.<\/p>\n The families also described as \u201cappalling\u201d the fact that many NUH senior managers chose not to give evidence to the inquiry and suggested that they be sacked.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have demonstrated that maternity safety doesn\u2019t matter to you, but self-preservation does. Your failure to engage constructively and with candour in this review process is further proof you are unfit to keep mothers and babies safe.<\/p>\n \u201cQuestions need to be asked by senior leaders and regulators whether you are fit to work in the NHS,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n Ockenden\u2019s report told how Jack and Sarah Hawkins experienced \u201csuppression of information\u201d by NUH and several regulatory bodies when they were searching for the truth about why their daughter Harriet had died just before her birth in 2016.<\/p>\n Kim Thomas, the chief executive of the Birth Trauma Association, said that Ockenden\u2019s \u201cshocking\u201d report had shown how \u201cwhen complaints were made, the trust\u2019s instinct was to cover up, rather than investigate, failings\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, we believe that Nottingham is not unique. As a charity we hear similar stories from hospitals throughout the country,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Murray announced that Martha\u2019s rule \u2013 which gives patients the right to an independent second opinion of their care by a separate clinical team \u2013 will be implemented at every maternity unit in England, as Ockenden suggested.<\/p>\n In future, current or past NHS staff who refuse to give evidence to maternity inquiries will have to do so or risk being jailed for up to two years, to try to break the ingrained \u201cculture of silence\u201d that often accompanies care failings and medical negligence.<\/p>\n Ockenden is already leading Nottingham-style reviews of what families say are endemic failings of NHS maternity care in Leeds and Sussex.<\/p>\n In an open letter \u201cto the people and communities of Nottinghamshire\u201d, the NUH chief executive, Anthony May, and chair, Nick Carver, said: \u201cWe apologise unreservedly to the women and families who have suffered harm, loss, trauma or distress while receiving care in our services.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray vowed that the government and NHS bosses would \u201cdeliver lasting change\u201d to improve maternity services across England. Ockenden\u2019s findings will help inform an action plan to overhaul childbirth services that the Department of Health and Social Care\u2019s maternity taskforce is drawing up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Horrific failings led to 520 mothers and babies in Nottingham suffering harm or dying, sparking calls for a public inquiry into maternity care across England. In all, 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered \u201cpotentially avoidable\u201d outcomes, a damning three-year long review of the biggest childbirth scandal in NHS history concluded. James Murray, the health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[680,165,1894,4370,357,1398,1229,5065,7728,177,1876],"class_list":{"0":"post-50635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-calls","9":"tag-care","10":"tag-failings","11":"tag-horrific","12":"tag-inquiry","13":"tag-maternity","14":"tag-nhs","15":"tag-nottingham","16":"tag-prompt","17":"tag-public","18":"tag-trust"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}