The largest maternity review in the history of the NHS is being published today, with contributions from 2,500 families and more than 800 staff members at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust. The review, overseen by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, was launched after Sarah and Jack Hawkins raised the alarm when their daughter Harriet was stillborn at Nottingham City Hospital in April 2016. The couple, who both worked for the trust, refused the results of a hospital review finding 'no obvious fault' and pushed for an external review which in 2019 found a host of failings at the trust and concluded Harriet's death was 'almost certainly preventable'.
Scope of the Inquiry
The probe outlines the scale of avoidable harm at NUH that cost babies and in some cases mothers their lives from 2012 to 2025. More than 2,500 families have relived their traumatic experiences to contribute to the review. Ms Ockenden's previous landmark inquiry of maternity failings in Shropshire, working with 1,500 families, has formed a blueprint for this inquiry. The General Medical Council (GMC) and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are investigating allegations. The trust has already paid out millions in compensation and fines, including the largest fine ever given to an NHS trust for maternity failings of £1.6 million over the deaths of three babies in 2021.
Families Gather for Findings
Families are gathering to hear Ms Ockenden's findings at a location in central Nottingham, where she will present them from 11:45 am. The report document will be handed out to families and the assembled media, and her presentation will last for around an hour. Today will be an incredibly tough day for hundreds of families involved in what has become the biggest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS.
Government Adviser Calls for Systematic Change
Speaking ahead of the publication, Labour MP Michelle Welsh, the Government's maternity adviser, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that maternity care needs 'systematic change'. She said it was 'pure luck' that her own baby had survived birth. 'When it comes to luck, as to whether your baby survives or not, then that is a true indication of a system that is truly, truly failing,' she said. Asked whether there was a will within Government to change things, she said: 'I feel that there is a momentum. I do feel that there is a will. I mean, I absolutely make sure that I am listened to. I haven't got in within those doors to sit there quiet and just nod my head. I'm absolutely out there, at the forefront, being very, very loud and clear about the fact that we do need the funding. But funding alone is not going to solve this crisis. There needs to be huge systematic change. The Government has to be bold in the policies that it makes, because tinkering around the edges will not solve this crisis. And some of these organisations involved are going to have to face these truths, and we are going to have to deal with this head on.'
