Families who raised concerns over maternity failures at NHS trust should ‘absolutely’ have been listened to sooner but letters to board directors and the coroner were ignored, says ex-midwife leading probe into the scandal
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Families who tried to reveal maternity failures in Nottingham should have been listened to sooner, the ex-midwife probing the scandal said yesterday.
Donna Ockenden spoke out after a bereaved couple revealed documents showing how they first asked Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) to call in police in the aftermath of the death of their baby in 2016.
On Thursday police revealed they would investigate maternity care failings at the Trust in parallel to Mrs Ockenden’s independent inquiry – which is the biggest of its kind encompassing 1,800 cases.
The maternity expert appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, when she was asked if families’ concerns should have been acted on earlier.
Mrs Ockenden said: ‘Absolutely. ‘On Wednesday, the families released to the public copies of letters where they were raising very significant concerns about the safety of maternity in Nottingham from April 2016.
Donna Ockenden (pictured) spoke out after a bereaved couple revealed they asked Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust trust to call the police after their baby died in 2016
‘These included letters to the board, to the coroner, to the wider NHS system and they were not listened to.’
The letters were released on behalf of Jack and Sarah Hawkins, who both worked at NUH when their daughter Harriet was stillborn at Nottingham City Hospital.
They show concerns were formally raised about the care they received during Harriet’s birth – after mother had spent six days in labour but was twice sent home from hospital in agonising pain – with the NUHT board on June 2 2016.
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They wrote: ‘We are not sure what is happening, but are deeply concerned that the plan is for an internal investigation performed by the obstetric team, without our involvement, followed by a meeting with a consultant. This is neither appropriate nor proportionate.
‘We need to trust that NUH are conducting an appropriate inquiry. We do not currently believe that you are. Can you re-assure us please?’
In further correspondence to a coroner’s office in November 2016, they said areas of concern included Harriet’s care and the hospital culture and its ‘implications for safe care’ for others.
They also raised concerns over the hospital’s follow-up investigation and lack of a ‘duty of candour’ – which requires staff to be open and transparent with families in the event of an unexpected or unintended incident affecting safety.
The Hawkinses, who now live in London, were initially told Harriet had died due to an infection in the womb, but Dr Hawkins told the Today programme they knew ‘something had gone wrong’.
He added: ‘We told them in 2016 that their view on maternity safety was so poor that there could be someone causing deliberate harm and that is documented and written to all the right people and ignored.’
Sarah and Jack Hawkins, with their daughter Lottie. Their daughter Harriet died during childbirth in 2016 due to failings within Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
A statement on behalf of a group of around 230 families affected by the NUH scandal said of the Hawkins’ attempts to blow the whistle in 2016: ‘They specifically asked the leaders of NUH to notify the police of her avoidable death, not just because of the care, but because of the behaviours of staff who were supposed to investigate and learn from her death.
‘This conversation has been repeated multiple times with senior people at NUH and with the local NHS over the years.’
Police are expected to investigate whether Trust staff breached the duty of candour regulation, introduced in 2014 as part of the Health and Social Care Act. NUH could also face corporate manslaughter charges, with individual staff investigated for gross negligence manslaughter.
Mrs Ockenden said on the Today programme that the professional duty of candour was not being ‘properly applied’.
The former midwife had previously investigated 1,500 maternity care cases in Telford and Shrewsbury, concluding that 201 babies and nine mothers could have survived if they received better care between 1973 and 2020.
West Mercia Police launched an investigation alongside the midwife in that case, which the force said is continuing.
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