By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council is to decide its next step over concerns that a hospital’s maternity services are not making the “necessary improvement at sufficient pace”.
Councillors will respond following a series of meetings with health bosses at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH).
There have been dozens of baby deaths and injuries at the trust, which runs Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital in Nottingham.
Maternity services are currently marked as ‘inadequate’ by inspectors, and the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is currently carrying out its own review into “maternity incidents, complaints and concerns” at NUH.
Some bereaved parents fear the review is not enough and have called for a public inquiry, which is backed by Nottingham South Labour MP Lilian Greenwood.
Public inquiries are major investigations – convened by a government minister – which investigate matters of “public concern”.
In a letter to the Health Secretary Sajid Javid in November 2021, Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Cllr Sue Saddington (Con) also backed a public inquiry and wrote that it is time for “the old guard to stand aside” to make way for new leadership at the trust.
Now, councillors sitting on Nottingham City Council’s health and adult social care scrutiny committee on Thursday, March 17, will compile their own response.
Papers prepared for the meeting state: “At its last meeting in February, the Committee concluded that it remains concerned about a lack of evidence that the necessary improvement is taking place at sufficient pace and agreed to consider its next steps.”
The committee will consider the information and evidence that it has gathered to date and decide ‘its next steps’.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service In February, Chief Nurse Michelle Rhodes at NUH said: “I understand why families are pushing for a public inquiry. The worry for me is that some of them take years, and to put families through that is awful.
“We are going to do as much as we can with the current review to make sure families do get more answers in a quicker timescale.”
She added: “We need to make sure the changes that are made are sustainable and last forever.
“We are not putting any sticking plasters on here. This is all about getting right down into the detail working with teams and families so we don’t end up back in this situation again.”
A spokesman for Nottingham University Hospitals added: “We are doing everything in our power to ensure the families using our maternity services get the best possible care and we are fully co-operating with the ongoing independent review, commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group.”
