Shrewsbury maternity scandal: ‘Unimaginable trauma’ caused, says Javid as report details avoidable baby deaths

Donna Ockenden said families who contributed to the review deserve tributes.

“Without their voices this endeavour would not have taken place,” she tweeted.

She also tweeted out the link to the full report, which you can find here:

Families affected by the maternity scandal embraced each other - and Donna Ockendon - after the report was published this morning.

Rhiannon Davies and Kayleigh Griffiths - who have both campaigned for years for safer care - were seen hugging each other outside of the hotel in Shropshire where it was launched.

Ms Davies was the first to raise awareness over what would go on to become the largest NHS maternity scandal ever. She lost her daughter Kate hours after giving birth in March 2009.

Ms Griffith lost her daughter, Pippa, to a Group B Strep infection in 2016. A coroner ruled her death could have been avoided.

Here campaigner Ms Davies can be seen hugging Ms Ockenden, who led the inquiry:

Here is Donna Ockenden holding the report with affected families on Wednesday:

Mothers were blamed for the avoidable deaths of more than 200 babies at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, an inquiry into the largest maternity scandal in NHS history has found, writes Rebecca Thomas:

The health secretary has issued a Commons apology for the maternity service failings reported at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

Sajid Javid told MPs: “We entrust the NHS with our care, often when we’re at our most vulnerable. In return we expect the highest standards.

“I have seen with my own family the brilliant care the NHS maternity services can offer. But when those standards are not met, we must act firmly and the failures of care and compassion that are set out in this report have absolutely no place in the NHS.

“To all the families that have suffered so gravely, I am sorry.

“The report clearly shows that you were failed by a service that was there to help you and your loved ones to bring life into this world.

“We will make the changes that the report says are needed at both a local and national level.”

He said the Ockenden report paints a “tragic and harrowing picture” of “repeated failures” in care over two decades.

“This report paints a tragic and harrowing picture of repeated failures in care over two decades, which led to unimaginable trauma for so many people, rather than moments of joy and happiness,” he said.

“For these families, their experience of maternity care was one of tragedy and distress, and the effects of these failures were felt across families, communities, and generations. The cases in this report are stark and deeply upsetting.”

Mr Javid added: “This is a devastating account of bedrooms that are empty, families that are bereft and loves ones taken before their time.”

An MP has told how one of her constituents begged staff for a C-section after a 36-hour labour but was forced into a natural birth.

Lucy Allan said Hayley Matthews’s son, Jack, arrived blue and floppy, and died within hours.

“The report makes for devastating reading, the more so because women’s voices were ignored,” Ms Allen told MPs.

She thanked the 1,862 women who shared their experiences with the review.

Feryal Clark, the shadow minister for patient safety, said the Shrewsbury maternity scandal reports laid bare the “the harrowing truth of what those families had to face”.

“Cries for help going unheard, parents having to try and resuscitate their own children because there was no-one there to help. Women and babies dying needlessly because they simply were not listened to,” she said.

“That women were silenced and ignored at their most vulnerable when they were relying on the NHS to keep them safe is shameful. No woman should ever have to face going into hospital to give birth and not knowing whether she and her baby will come out alive.”

Jeremy Hunt, who ordered the inquiry as health secretary in 2017, said it was “hard to comprehend the scale of the scandal” uncovered by the report.

Here is his take on it:

The Ockenden report has raised 15 areas for “immediate and essential action” to improve care and safety in maternity services across England.

This includes how to ensure safe staffing, robust support for families and improve postnatal care.

Here are just a few examples of what it concludes:

• Staff must be able to escalate concerns
• Incident investigations must be meaningful for families and staff and lessons must be learned and implemented in practice in a timely manner
• Staff who work together must train together
• Women who choose birth outside a hospital setting must receive accurate advice with regards to transfer times to an obstetric unit should this be necessary
• Trusts must ensure that women who have suffered pregnancy loss have appropriate bereavement care services.
• Care and consideration of the mental health and wellbeing of mothers, their partners and the family as a whole must be integral to all aspects of maternity service provision