Better maternity care ‘might have saved 201 babies’, report set to find

An inquiry into failures of maternity care at an NHS trust is expected to find some 201 babies might have been saved.

The families of babies who died or who were left seriously disabled due to catastrophic mistakes at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS trust are to receive the final report of an independent inquiry today.

The BBC reported last night the report will say that more than 200 babies might have survived if better care had been provided.

Dozens of other children sustained life changing injuries as a result of the failure to provide adequate treatment.

Mothers also died or sustained injuries as a result of failures by the trust.

The trust previously said it takes "full responsibility" for failures in maternity care and "offeredtheirsincereapologies."

After a five-year inquiry, chaired by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, the scale of failures uncovered is unprecedented in the history of NHS maternity care.

Ms Ockenden's team has examined 1,862 cases, mainly covering 2000 to 2019, making it the largest inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS.

The trust is currently ranked as inadequate by regulators.

The Rev Charlotte Cheshire, 44, from Newport, Shropshire, says her son Adam, now 11, looked unwell after his birth in 2011 but her concerns were dismissed by staff at the trust.

When it was finally discovered that he had Group B Strep infection, he was rushed to intensive care where he stayed for almost a month.

Ms Cheshire, who is suing the trust, says her son has been left with multiple, severe health problems and should have received treatment much earlier.

She told the PA news agency: "What I'm ultimately hoping is that all of the families get some answers. And then, in our individual cases, about how it's possible for there to be such systemic failings over so many years, with seemingly either no-one noticing them, or potentially them being covered up.

"So I'm hoping first of all for answers,butsecondly,i'mhoping, as a result of Ockenden, there are genuine learnings.

"Not the sort of, 'oh, we'll learn and get back to you', but genuine learnings to improve maternity safety – primarily first of all at Shrewsbury and Telford, but secondly across the country as a whole.”

An interim report from the inquiry, published in December 2020 and covering 250 reviews, found a string of failings over two decades.

There was an unwillingness by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust to learn lessons from its own inadequate investigations, leading to babies being born stillborn, dying shortly after birth or being left severely brain damaged.

Several mothers also died due to apparent failings of care.

Ms Ockenden's team of investigators found some families were wrongly blamed when their babies died, were locked out of inquiries into what happened, and were treated without compassion and kindness.

She also noted the trust pursued a strategy of keeping Caesarean section rates low, despite the fact this led to poor care and severe consequences for some families.