By Jamie Waller, Local Democracy Reporter
Parents whose babies were died or were injured in the care of Nottingham University Hospitals are calling for a national review into maternity services.
Jack and Sarah Hawkins’ daughter Harriet died in 2016 and were one of the first families to raise wider concerns over care failings at the hospitals trust.
Senior midwife Donna Ockenden is now looking into care over a decade at Nottingham Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital in the UK’s largest-ever maternity review.
The Hawkins now say they want to see a version of the Ockenden Review rolled out across England.
“Whenever we speak about what happened to us, we’re contacted by families who have been harmed from across the country. Plymouth, Leeds, Cumbria – all over,” Sarah said.
She says this builds a picture of “widespread devastation across the country”, with babies and mothers dying or being harmed unnecessarily following poor care.
Jack believes a government inquiry is needed to reveal the scale of the issue.
“In Nottingham, families had to do the work to expose the problems,” Jack said.
“I went to the inquest of a baby who died in similar circumstances to Harriet. They created the very same action plan they suggested after her death.
“I thought ‘My god, nothing’s changed. No lessons have been learnt. There were no consequences for Harriet’s death.’”
The Maternity Safety Alliance, a group of bereaved parents, family members, and maternity safety campaigners, wants to see a statutory public inquiry into safety across the country, with it being a legal requirement for parties to give evidence.
Members are calling for investigations into the leadership, culture and practices at hospitals, along with whether regulators are doing their jobs properly.
Reviews have already revealed failings in services in Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, with the Nottingham review ongoing.
The Hawkins believe there is too much variation in maternity care between trusts, with the basics often being overlooked.
“Many people will think ‘Well I had a good maternity experience’ – but it could very easily have been different,” Jack said.
“The picture is worsening with more babies and mothers dying.
“It’s a lottery, and we were some of the unlucky ones.”
National figures collated by the Mothers and Babies research group show stillbirths increased from a rate of 3.33 per 1,000 in 2020 to 3.54 per 1,000 the following year.
They also found that deaths of mothers have increased by 15 per cent since 2009.
The Hawkins say they expect a national review to reveal hundreds of cases of preventable harm.
“The question is, what will happen after the review? Will there be changes, and who will make sure they happen?” Sarah says.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust says it is committed to the independent review and will implement any feedback it is given.
The trust has begun a maternity improvement plan, and the Care Quality Commission watchdog rating for its services has been raised from ‘inadequate’ to ‘requires improvement’.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Every parent deserves to feel confident in the care they and their baby receive and we welcome the Care Quality Commission’s commitment to monitoring those trusts that are not providing an adequate standard, to ensure improvements are made.
“Nationally, we have invested £165 million a year since 2021 to grow the maternity workforce and improve neonatal services and we are promoting careers in midwifery by increasing training places by up to 3,650 over the past four years.
“The Care Quality Commission is also currently inspecting all NHS acute hospital maternity services that have not been inspected and rated since April 2021.”
