Leaked NHS report reveals ‘toxic culture’ at hospital trust
Babies died in ‘worst ever’ maternity scandal
BABIES and mothers died amid major failings at a Midlands’ hospital trust in what is likely to be the NHS’s worst ever maternity scandal.
A leaked report shows that a “toxic” culture stretching back 40 years was in place when babies and mothers suffered avoidable death.
Children were also left with permanent disability amid substandard care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
Staff at the trust routinely dismissed parents’ concerns, were unkind, got dead babies’ names wrong and, in one instance, referred to a baby who died as “it”.
In another case, parents were not told their baby’s body had arrived back from the post-mortem examination, and it was left to decompose so badly that the family never got to say a final goodbye.
The interim update report, which has been obtained by The Independent, comes from an independent inquiry ordered by the Government in July 2017.
The study warns that, even to the present day, lessons are not being learned and staff at the trust are uncommunicative with families.
It also points to an inadequate review carried out by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in 2017 and the “misplaced” optimism of the regulator in charge in 2007.
The inquiry, which is being led by maternity expert Donna Ockenden, was launched by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Its initial scope was to examine 23 cases but this has now grown to more than 270 covering the period 1979 to the present day.
The cases include 22 stillbirths, three deaths during pregnancy, 17 deaths of babies after birth, three deaths of mothers, 47 cases of substandard care and 51 cases of cerebral palsy or brain damage.
The interim report written by Ms Ockenden for NHS Improvement and the trust – seen by the PA news agency – details the pain suffered by the families.
The inquiry was launched following the efforts of Rhiannon and Richard Stanton Davies, whose daughter Kate died shortly after birth in 2009, and Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths, whose daughter Pippa died shortly after birth in 2016.
Ms Davies said the leaked report showed the trust’s chronic inability to learn from past mistakes had “condemned my daughter to death”, adding: “How has this been tolerated for so long? It is horrific.”
In the report, Mrs Ockenden wrote: “No apology will be sufficient or adequate for families who lost loved ones to avoidable deaths, or whose experience of becoming a parent was blighted by poor care and avoidable harm.
“Many families have described to me how they live on a daily basis with the results of that poor care.”
The report also criticised the trust’s slow response in sending the inquiry medical records, clinical notes and other documents.