By Inquiry into worst maternity scandal in NHS history reveals service must be urgently overhauled
Maternity care across the NHS must be urgently overhauled after an inquiry let to the examination of cases regarding the alleged harm to babies and mothers at the trust, which has been described as the worst maternity scandal in NHS history.
All maternity services in England have been told to take immediate action to improve patient safety, according to the review.
The inquiry, led by midwife Donna Ockenden, was originally asked to look at 23 cases of alleged maternity failings at the trust.
Since the review began in 2017, she has been contacted by 1,862 families, with most of the incidents taking place between 2000 and 2019.
Mothers were blamed for the deaths of their babies at a hospital trust that failed to properly investigate failures in maternity care.
A report that has examined more than 1,800 cases of harm, including unnecessary deaths of babies and mothers, and babies left with lasting brain damage, found there was a lack of kindness or compassion towards families affected from staff at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust.
There were dozens of deaths at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust over several decades because of a push to avoid caesarean sections, even denying women key information about the risks, the first official report of the independent inquiry found.
This push saw mothers given drugs to increase the strength and frequency of their contractions, putting babies at risk of brain damage and death.
Some were then forced to undergo traumatic deliveries in which the level of “excessive force” fractured babies’ skulls and broke their bones.
The report found in some cases, earlier recourse to a caesarean delivery would have avoided death and injury.
All maternity services in England have been told to take immediate action to improve patient safety, according to the review.
Midwife Ockenden’s recommendations include trusts working together to investigate serious incidents and ensuring learning is shared within regions.
Trusts must also implement twice-daily consultant-led ward rounds, seven days a week, and make sure a formal risk assessment is carried out at every antenatal contact to make sure women have access to the most appropriate care.
Publishing her report, Donna Ockenden said:
“I would like to express my very sincere thanks to the families who are at the very centre of this maternity review”.
“This must include the very many families who tried to raise serious concerns about maternity care at the Trust who have told us they were not listened to”.
“We have been listening so that we can enable the trust and wider maternity services across England to be clear about the improvements needed”.
“This will ensure that maternity services are enabled to continuously improve the safety of the care they provide to women and families”.
