Experts in baby deaths probe axed after Mail reveals cover-up fears
A PANEL of experts supervising a baby death inquiry was ditched yesterday by NHS bosses amid fears of cover-up.
The investigation is looking into 220 suspect incidents at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, including the deaths of mothers and babies.
Last week NHS officials appointed a panel to oversee the review – to the consternation of some of the families involved who feared some of the experts may have had vested interests in covering up the findings.
Now, just days after the Daily Mail reported on the families’ concerns, the NHS has axed the panel from the inquiry.
The experts included a representative from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), which carried out a damning inspection report it never published, and one from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), which has long favoured natural births.
Dr Kathy McLean, of NHS Improvement, said: ‘ We are committed to ensuring the Trust is able to learn as much as it can from the independent review into its handling of concerns about maternity and neonatal care. In response to feedback from families, NHS Improvement has decided to stand down the independent review panel.’ She said the panel was intended to provide ‘additional scrutiny and support’ but conceded its role had ‘prompted concerns, which we hope are now resolved’.
In 2017, the RCOG went into the maternity services in Shropshire and wrote a highly critical report which was never passed to watchdogs.
Instead it was persuaded by hospital bosses to produce a glowing progress review implying services were safe. Meanwhile, the RCM has long encouraged women to give birth naturally, without caesareans. This agenda has partly been blamed for the problems at Shrewsbury and some women claim their babies were harmed because midwives failed to intervene.
Rhiannon Davies, whose daughter Kate died in 2009 following failures by midwives, said: ‘The decision to select compromised, self-interested individuals to people the scrutiny panel was offensive and legally questionable.
‘Each had a vested interest in covering up personal failings and closing down the review.’
The review into Shrewsbury was launched by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt in April 2017. Failures have been attributed to a lack of training of midwives, a culture of denial and a failure to intervene when labours went wrong.