Jump to content
  • Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...

Recommended Posts

  • Diamond Member

This is the hidden content, please

The story behind the largest NHS maternity review

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==BBC

Sarah and Jack Hawkins have continually called for a national inquiry into maternity services

The maternity units at Nottingham’s two major NHS hospitals are among the most troubled and controversial in the ***.

Hundreds of ******* have ***** or been injured while under the care of Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust, which runs the departments at City Hospital and the Queen’s Medical Centre.

The units, which have been rated inadequate, are currently the focus of the largest inquiry of its kind in NHS history.

The NHS has already

This is the hidden content, please
more than £100m over failings at these centres between 2006 and 2023.

One of the first families to raise the alarm was Jack and Sarah Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet ***** in the womb at City Hospital in April 2016.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==LDRS

Nottingham City Hospital is one of two main sites run by NUH

Dr and Ms Hawkins, who both worked for the trust, did not accept a hospital review that found “no obvious fault” and stated their child had ***** of an infection.

The couple pushed for an external review, which began four months later.

Published in January 2018, it

This is the hidden content, please
and concluded the ****** had been “almost certainly preventable”.

In the same year, midwives at the trust drafted a letter that would later form part of an inquest into the ****** of another baby, Wynter Andrews.

She ***** 23 minutes after being delivered by Caesarean section in September 2019.

At the inquest the next year, assistant

This is the hidden content, please
Wynter’s parents, Sarah and Gary, that her ****** had been “a clear and obvious case of neglect”.

Ms Bower cited the 2018 letter, from midwives on the unit to NUH bosses, which had outlined concerns over staffing levels as “the cause of a potential disaster”.

In December 2020, two months after Wynter’s inquest, the trust’s maternity services were

This is the hidden content, please
by the healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The report found some staff had not completed training in key skills and “did not always understand how to keep women and ******* safe”.

Inspectors added there was “limited evidence of managers monitoring the effectiveness of care and treatment and driving improvement”.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Andrews family

Wynter Andrews with her parents

This prompted both the Andrews and Hawkins families to call for a public inquiry.

Calls increased in July 2021, when Channel 4 News and the Independent

This is the hidden content, please
that 46 ******* suffered brain damage and 19 were stillborn at the trust between 2010 and 2020.

Plans for a review, led by the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and NHS England, were announced that month and with the intention of reporting back by November 2022.

By March 2022, it had been in contact with nearly 400 families but it had already been criticised by campaigners for what they saw as a lack of independence, experience and “moving with the

This is the hidden content, please
“.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Senior midwife Donna Ockenden is now leading the review

It was at this point that families called for Donna Ockenden to take charge of a fully independent review.

Ms Ockenden had recently completed the inquiry into what was, at the time, the ***’s biggest maternity scandal, at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust.

Her appointment was confirmed in July 2022, with the review of care provided by the trust being launched in September the same year.

By July 2023, the review had

This is the hidden content, please
, with the cases of 1,700 families to be examined.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Families gathered earlier this year to discuss their experiences

In September that year, Nottinghamshire Police

This is the hidden content, please
into the failings.

Days later, the CQC

This is the hidden content, please
that the maternity units had been upgraded from inadequate to
This is the hidden content, please
.

The next month, some of the families joined in calls for a

This is the hidden content, please
.

At the time, Dr Hawkins said: “We have had repeated inquiries and it’s the same issues that keep on coming up.

“There is a fundamental problem with maternity services in this country.

“We need to understand it. At the moment it feels like you can cause horrific damage to someone’s family and it doesn’t really register, it doesn’t matter.”

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Earlier this year, it was revealed the trust had paid out more than £100m in compensation and legal fees

The £101m in compensation and legal fees paid out due to maternity failings was revealed in February.

The payments related to 134 cases, with one family, whose son was left with cerebral palsy, fighting a 10-year battle for a package of an initial £6m and annual payments thereafter.

The NHS has paid out for 22 cerebral palsy cases at NUH, amounting to £53.1m in legal fees and damages in the last 17 years.

Stillbirth was the second highest figure at £4.6m, followed by successful claims of bowel damage (£3.4m), bladder damage (£2.2m) and fatality (£1.9m).

Dr and Ms Hawkins received £2.8m – the largest compensation settlement in a stillbirth clinical negligence claim in NHS history, five years after the ****** of Harriet.

NUH was also given a

This is the hidden content, please
– the largest handed out to an NHS trust over maternity care – by magistrates in January 2023 after admitting failings over the ****** of Wynter Andrews.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==PA

Sarah and Gary Andrews at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court

In May this year, the

This is the hidden content, please
from examining stillbirths, neonatal deaths, injured ******* and mothers and maternal deaths, to antenatal care – all contact mothers have with maternity services until their children are born.

The review team is now looking into the cases of about 2,000 families and a final report is not expected until September 2025.

Speaking after attending an all-party parliamentary group on birth trauma in May, Ms Ockenden said: “I listened to some of the accounts from across the country and they were harrowing in the extreme.

“Quite frankly, we can’t keep having report after report with warm words saying things are going to get better, we have to do better.”

‘Issues identified’

Bosses at the trust have repeatedly apologised for failings, with chief executive Anthony May saying it was committed to “transparent and full engagement” and improvements on “staffing levels, training and compliance with guidelines” within the department.

Concerns, however, remain.

Ms Ockenden told the BBC

This is the hidden content, please
that improvements had “stalled”, saying the trust needed to “get back on track” following an unannounced inspection by the CQC in June.

In response, Mr May said the trust would “respond to the issues identified by both Donna and the CQC”.

“I am confident that our maternity services are properly staffed and that we have effective monitoring systems in place,” he said. “At the same time, I am committed to ensuring we have sufficient resources in place to maintain safe and effective care.”

Follow BBC Nottingham on

This is the hidden content, please
, on
This is the hidden content, please
, or on
This is the hidden content, please
. Send your story ideas to [email protected].*** or via
This is the hidden content, please
on 0808 100 2210.




This is the hidden content, please

#story #largest #NHS #maternity #review

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Vote for the server

    To vote for this server you must login.

    Jim Carrey Flirting GIF

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.