Report Into Deaths Of Babies At Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital Delayed Again

Investigations following concerns about maternity care provided at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (the Trust) are underway and the resulting report was due to be published on 22 March 2022. However, unfortunately, the report has been delayed for a second time.

Report concerning maternity care provided at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

As we recently reported, the report into the maternity care services at the Trust came about when two mothers, who had lost their babies as a result of poor care, joined forces to find other women who had been similarly affected by carrying out a search of the internet, coroner’s records, and death notices. They took their concerns to Jeremy Hunt who, in May 2017, ordered an investigation of the maternity care services at the Trust to take place.

The extensive investigation is led by Donna Ockenden, a Senior Midwife, and is looking at over 1,800 cases.

An interim report into the Trust, which was published in December 2020, found that one of the key themes was that, in a lot of cases, it failed to investigate after something went wrong or they carried out their own inquiry, which the family was not allowed to be part of. There were also significant concerns that the Trust prioritised an agenda of achieving low caesarean section rates above the best interests of patients.

The report was due to be published this month, but Ms Ockenden has said in a letter sent to affected families that this can “no longer happen” due to “parliamentary processes” which have to happen before the final report can be published.

In her letter, Ms Ockenden said that she and her team “were also very disappointed in the delay” and promised to work to agree on a new publication date.

Comment

It can be nothing short of devastating to the families affected by this that the report is delayed for a second time. They have already been waiting for answers for such a long time.

At Nelsons, our Medical Negligence team have frequently been instructed on cases where clients have resorted to a legal investigation because they have felt shut out by the medical services that have treated them when they raised concerns.

Clients often tell us that they only want answers to the concerns they have and this has been a feature of our work for a very long time.

It is now vital that those involved in the investigations move to progress matters and get a new date confirmed – a date they are able to stick to this time – to save the families even more unnecessary distress.