Senior Midwife, Donna Ockenden, who is leading the review into how dozens of babies died or were injured at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, has reacted to the news this week that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) recently found a continued deterioration in the safety of maternity units in the UK.
The BBC’s analysis of the CQC data showed that two-thirds (67%) of maternity units across the country were not safe enough, see our previous blog for further details.
Ms Ockenden has now commented that she is “so disappointed” by the findings of the new study.
Nottingham maternity services
The comments from Ms Ockenden on the recent study findings comes following her announcement this week that a number of maternity services within Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) remain poor for some women.
As her review into the service continues, Ms Ockenden said that there has been ongoing dialogue with the Trust, and that she had highlighted criticism of their interpretation services.
She said:
“We’ve just had our fifth learning and improvement meeting with [chief executive] Anthony May, members of the executive team and NHS England. We talked about discrimination, inequality, and racism.
NUH are working hard to improve on this aspect but women that I’m speaking to in the here and now, who are still pregnant or recently had babies, said that interpretation remains poor. It’s better in the community than in the hospital. Many women feel that they are treated differently because of their background.”
Ms Ockenden has said that her review has found that, whilst improvements are being made at NUH, the hospital agrees that there is “a marathon ahead, rather than a sprint.”
Calls for a full public inquiry
The detailed review of NUH is ongoing and Ms Ockenden has confirmed that they will not report until September 2025. There will also likely be a period of feedback from families, which could last until the start of 2026.
In the meantime, there are many calling for a judge-led full public inquiry into the state of maternity services across the country.
This follows the news of failings in care found in reviews of maternity services at Morecambe Bay, East Kent, and Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals.
There are also calls for another inquiry into maternity services in Leicester following their “inadequate” review by the CQC earlier this year.
Comment
To say that there is a marathon ahead, not a sprint, when it comes to the work to be done at NUH is perhaps an enormous understatement.
The Trust’s maternity services have been under scrutiny for months and yet failings are still being seen. In particular, the finding that their interpretation services are failing women in their care is hugely disappointing. These women, likely from minority communities, are not being heard simply because of a language barrier. This will inevitably lead to issues and inadequate care for those women, their babies, and their families. It should not be the case in 2023 that some women feel that they are being treated differently because of their background.
Comment
It seems that this will not be the last of the inquiries across the country, and that there is much work to do when it comes to NUH and the desperate improvements needed in their maternity services.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which is ranked in Tier One by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions about the subjects discussed in this article, please contact Danielle or another team member in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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