By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
The boss of Nottingham hospitals has promised an extra formal commitment to improve the trust’s maternity services at the request of a bereaved family.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust’s (NUH) chief executive, Anthony May, announced today he will be adding the additional promise as part of the organisation’s ongoing efforts to change the service.
The new formal commitment – to engage with women and families who have used the maternity services – was made at a public meeting held today (September 18) in Nottingham city centre to discuss maternity and hospital improvements.
Donna Ockenden also spoke of the trust’s improvements and failings today, as well as providing an update on her independent maternity review into serious failings within the hospitals’ maternity services.
Ms Ockenden’s ongoing work, now involving nearly 2,000 families, is due to be published in September 2025.
A separate Notts Police investigation into failings which led to baby deaths and injuries is also in its early stages.
Some of the bereaved families who are part of the Ockenden review were also present at Wednesday’s meeting, including Sarah Hawkins, mother of daughter Harriet, who was stillborn at City Hospital in 2016.
She proposed the addition of a sixth formal commitment, to the trust’s already promised five, during part of the meeting. Chief Executive Mr May immediately accepted the the proposal.
Baby Harriet’s father, Jack Hawkins, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) after the meeting: “What we want is accountability that changes the culture of the hospital.
“That’s disciplinary proceedings against any people [who are found] to have prevented change or who have accepted low quality care and cover-ups in the past and the opportunity for people to learn and change. Some of those people are not learnable and changeable and they need criminal prosecution.
“If you turn up to work and do a job so badly that mum or baby dies or are severely harmed, then hell fire you need to be held to account.”
The trust plans to deliver on a series of formal commitments to women and families to ensure better maternity care across the organisation, while also acknowledging the harm brought to the families involved in Donna Ockenden’s review.
Mr May, speaking to the LDRS following the meeting, said: “Since I’ve been here I have been transparent, I have tried to engage with the families, with the review, with the police investigation – I know that accountability is important to the families.
“We are committed to that, anything that’s referred to me is dealt with through the proper processes, but equally I know that the families feel very strongly that we are not doing enough and I want to work with them so that we can describe hopefully in a way that meets their needs and ours of what accountability means in their context.”
Mr May added to achieve the accountability families want, more understanding will be needed around the processes the trust uses, what they can and cannot say regarding employment processes, how the trust interacts with regulators and how they are able to feedback outcomes of processes.
He added: “Giving a reassurance to the families that if things meet the threshold for internal and external processes we have got a transparent commitment to dealing with them properly.
“At the moment [families] don’t believe they’ve got that commitment from us which is why today I have added a sixth one in.”
Natalie Needham, mother of baby Kouper, who died unexpectedly at home less than 24 hours after being born at City Hospital, agreed with the sixth commitment being added, but said she needs to see proof of its work.
She said: “It’s alright him saying it but we need to see action, accountability starts at acknowledging every staff member that has made a mistake and individually speaking to those people to then assess what needs to happen moving forward.
“Whether that be disciplinary procedures, extra training, if it’s a midwife, have a second midwife shadow that midwife for so long- we need to see action, this should have been done years ago.”
Ms Ockenden told the LDRS that she is “fully supportive” of the extra commitment.
She said: “We cannot turn back the clock, families have been left with the most unspeakable harm that will remain with them forever so I completely appreciate why, and why I support, their call for accountability.
“So much needs to be done across Nottingham’s maternity services to improve the culture around perinatal care, that has to be around accountability, behaviours, compassion, kindness and civility but of course the ‘A’ of that – accountability – is so very very important.”
The five commitments – now to become six – include the introduction of a family liaison service, which will provide women and families with a single point of contact and support after a distressing experience or bereavement during their maternity and/or neonatal care.
The others involve working with the review families to develop a public and meaningful apology for the maternity failings, finding a suitable approach for ongoing public oversight, check and challenge on improvement against the reports recommendations, working with families to develop a lasting legacy for the mothers and babies who have died or suffered harm and the continued specialist psychological support for families.
