Cover-up storm over baby deaths
Parents’ anger as probe into NHS maternity units is led by ‘experts’ at centre of scandal
A REVIEW into an unprecedented baby death scandal was described as a ‘ cover up’ last night by grieving families.
It is investigating more than 220 suspicious incidents at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals in what could be the NHS’s worst maternity crisis.
The Daily Mail has learned it is being overseen by a panel of experts accused of being implicated in the scandal.
They include the head of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which produced a damning report into the trust two years ago that went unpublished. Instead, the college was paid by the trust to write up a glowing ‘progress update’ nine months later which essenfor tially whitewashed their own findings. Had the college published its first report – or alerted NHS watchdogs – subsequent tragedies may have been avoided.
The review’s panel also includes the head of the Royal College of Midwives, which years has been obsessed with women having natural births rather than caesareans.
This agenda has been partly blamed for the problems at Shrewsbury and some mothers said they were dissuaded from having any medical interventions.
Furthermore, the Royal College of Midwives is the union representing those midwives from the trust whose poor care led to tragedy.
The panel also includes two officials from NHS Improvement, the regulator which failed to pick up on the trust’s higher-than-average baby death rate.
Families believe the appointments have been put in place to water-down the review’s findings.
Rhiannon Davies, whose daughter Kate died in 2009 due to failings at the trust said: ‘This is a complete and utter cover up. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make deep, lasting, positive change and they’re trying to cover it up. NHS Improvement have chosen to invite some highly inappropriate individuals who have proven themselves to be politically motivated, self-serving and in Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital’s pocket.’
Today would have been Kate’s tenth birthday but she died just six hours after she was born.
Kayleigh Griffiths, whose daughter Pippa died in April 2016 from an infection which wasn’t picked up by midwives, said: ‘We are extremely concerned that the review will no longer be independent.’ The review was launched by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt in April 2017 to investigate 23 deaths and other incidents. But dozens of other families came forward and the team are now looking at between 220 and 230 cases, all from the last two decades.
The total number of babies who have died or been harmed is expected to eclipse the tragedy at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay in Cumbria. There, 16 babies and three women died unnecessarily over ten years. The failures at Shrewsbury have been pinned on a lack of training, a culture of denial and a failure to intervene when labours went wrong.
The review is being headed by a highly experienced and independent midwife, Donna Ockenden, and a team of investigators. But yesterday families were told that this team reports to a six-strong ‘independent review panel.’
They include Lesley Reagan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives and Dr Kathy McLean and Lorna Squires of NHS Improvement. It is due to publish its findings in 2020.
Last November the trust was placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission over concerns about its maternity services and A&E units.
NHS Improvement chief Dr Kathy McLean said: ‘The review remains independent and NHS Improvement will ensure families are given the answers they need and that lessons are learnt.’
A Royal College of Midwives spokesman said the review would provide ‘important lessons’.
TEENAGE Islamic State bride Shamima Begum has fled the refugee camp where she was staying with her newborn son after receiving death threats from other jihadi wives, it was reported last night.
The 19-year- old and her baby Jerah were moved to another location in the middle of the night after IS wives vowed to kill her.
They believe she has disgraced their cause by giving media interviews about life under the caliphate, which has earned her ‘ celebrity’ status in the camp, The Sun reported.
Islamic hardliners also criticised her for repeatedly appearing on television without covering her face.
Begum was switched from northern Syria’s Al-Hawl refugee camp to the Al-Roy refugee base, closer to the Iraqi border, for her safety and that of her week-old son.
A source told the newspaper: ‘Shamima was threatened directly in the camp. She is living in fear of her life. There is a bounty on her head. She felt she had no option but to move to have a chance of survival.
‘Shamima has become something of a celebrity and is constantly looking over her shoulder, fearing brutal reprisals for daring to speak out about life with IS. She’s in misery, but only has herself to blame.’
Last week, Begum claimed she had been given a plush tent because she was ‘famous’, and said other fanatics had threatened to burn it down. She told the Mail: ‘ Now a lot of women hate me, I’m afraid of a lot of people.’
The East London teenager, who has been stripped of her British citizenship, showed no remorse for leaving the UK to join the terror organisation, where she married Dutch jihadi fighter Yago Riedijk, 23, who is now in jail. She left Bethnal Green for wartorn Syria with two school friends in February 2015, when she was 15. Since arriving in Syria, she has given birth three times and lost two children to illness and malnutrition.
Begum initially showed little remorse for joining an organisation that has been behind brutal executions and last year’s Manchester Arena bombing, which killed 22 people.
In an interview with the BBC she claimed the Manchester bombing was ‘justified’.
She added: ‘I do feel that is wrong. Innocent people did get killed. It’s one thing to kill a soldier that is fighting you, it’s fine, it’s self-defence.
‘But to kill people like women and children, just like the women and children in Baghuz [IS’s last stronghold] who are being killed right now unjustly by the bombings – it’s a two-way thing, really, because women and children are being killed in Islamic State right now. It’s kind of retaliation.’
In subsequent interviews, she adopted a more conciliatory tone, and begged for a ‘second chance’ to show how ‘someone can change’. She told the Mail: ‘I’d like to be an example of how someone can change. I want to help, encourage other young British people to think before they make life- changing decisions like this and not to make the same mistake as me. I can’t do that if I am sitting here in a camp. I can’t do that for you.’
Begum’s father, Ahmed Ali, supported the Government’s decision to remove her citizenship and criticised his daughter for not condemning IS.
Begum’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, told The Sun: ‘It is our understanding that Shamima has been moved from Al-Hawl due to safety concerns around her and her baby. We further understand that indeed she and her child had been threatened by others at the Al-Hawl camp.’
‘She only has herself to blame’