A review into poor maternity care in Nottingham will have a bigger, more experienced team than the one which exposed significant failings at Shrewsbury Hospital.
Senior midwife Donna Ockenden is set to chair an independent review into Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH), where maternity units are rated ‘inadequate’ by inspectors and dozens of babies have died or been injured.
Ms Ockenden said a new email address – nottsreview@donnaockenden.com – has now been set up for families to come forward with experiences.
A group of Nottingham families said the review was “a real chance” to ensure all families receive safe maternity care at the trust, following a separate NHS review which was scrapped earlier this year.
The fresh review of services provided at both the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital will officially start in September 2022 and is expected to last around 18 months – depending on the number of families who come forward.
Ms Ockenden led a previous review into Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust’s maternity services, which found 201 babies and nine mothers might have survived if they had received better maternity care there.
The Shrewsbury inquiry involved 93 team members from the start to the end of the process.
Ms Ockenden said: “The similarity with Shrewsbury is that families have had to press so hard to get this independent view.
“For future issues within services, I would hope that would absolutely not be necessary.
“The Nottingham families have been very brave and persistent, but that shouldn’t have had to happen to the degree that it did.
“We know from those families who have come forward that there are the most awful tragedies.”
The Nottingham review comes at a time when NUH is under intense scrutiny by the healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which currently grades maternity services ‘inadequate’ and the trust as a whole as ‘requires improvement’.
Ms Ockenden said the Nottingham review team will have “thousands of years of experience” in total.
Many members currently work as midwives and doctors across the country and will dedicate their free time to the Nottingham review.
She said: “We’ve added more members to our team so our independent doctors and midwives come from as far afield as Newcastle in the north and Cornwall in the southwest.
“It gives us a greater workforce, it means we can be as efficient as possible in terms of the time it takes to complete the review, it brings us a greater depth of experience, and it brings us greater insight into how maternity is on the ground.
“Also, I hope it gives the families greater comfort to know that there is such expertise. It should also give the staff in Nottingham greater confidence as well.”
The first few weeks of the review will see the team working with NUH to gain access to documentation as well as reaching out to affected families.
The group of harmed Nottingham families told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “What’s tragic is that it’s taken many years of campaigning to get to this stage.
“Whilst it’s impossible to undo the many years of hurt and pain experienced by so many, there is now a real chance to ensure that the families of Nottinghamshire receive the safe maternity care that they deserve.
“It’s the collective sharing of experiences of failures in maternity care at Nottingham that will drive the changes needed.
“If you, a family member, or a friend has had a negative maternity experience at NUH, we urge you to come forward to share your story. No matter how minor you may feel it is, your experience is important, and by sharing it with the review team you are helping to make maternity services safe for generations to come.”
Ms Ockenden added: “I recognise it can take quite a lot for families to start that email or press that button, so you can take your time but it is available if you want to reach out to us.
“If you feel able to, please do come forward. You will always be treated with kindness and with respect, and you will be listened to.”
She added that all family meetings will be conducted in a non-NHS venue.
Ms Ockenden said she has had two letters from the chair and the chief executive of NUH, who have “promised their full cooperation and support of the review, which is very positive”.
She added: “Clearly they want to improve on their maternity services and they understand that the review will be a key part of that.”
NUH Director of Midwifery Sharon Wallis said: “Our aim is to offer the best maternity care to the families using our services, and to do this we are committed to supporting the review team’s work, which alongside the work of our own improvement team will ensure we do everything necessary to learn and improve.”
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