Insight
Families 'unconvinced' review into maternity services in Nottingham will bring real change
ITV News Central Health Correspondent Nancy Cole reports on the families affected by maternity care at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust
Stories of babies lost, mothers and their children harmed and families left devastated.
Last week’s Ockenden Report highlighted major failings in maternity care in Shropshire.
What happened at Shrewsbury and Telford is considered the worst maternity scandal in the history of the NHS.
But in Nottingham, families who’ve experienced serious harm and loss, are still waiting to see the full scale of the problem.
A thematic review is currently being undertaken into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.
It’s due to end in November but now at the half-way point many families remain unconvinced it will bring real and visible change.
The number of families now wanting to take part in the review has quadrupled in recent weeks to 387.
There are now more than 100 families, as part of a private Facebook group, backing calls for a government-commissioned public inquiry.
Harriet Hawkins was stillborn in 2016 at Nottingham’s City Hospital after a five-day labour.
An independent report found her death was almost certainly preventable.
Jack Hawkins, said the key findings of the Ockenden report was like reading a "copy and paste" of failings:
"Harriet should be alive and would have been alive if Nottingham had taken seriously the problems they already knew they had in 2016.
"To see so many other families come to harm and babies die in basically the same way that Harriet died is just heartbreaking."
Felicity Benyon’s bladder was cut out by mistake during a planned C-section at the Queen's Medical Centre in 2015. The trust admitted liability.
She's hopeful what the Ockenden report could mean for families and said:
"I hope it will change things and improve things greatly for future mums and babies.
"But I think NUH needs its own public inquiry to realise where its management and its style and its policies and procedures are going completely wrong to be able to identify those separate incidents to go alongside this report."
In response Nottingham’s thematic review team said it was best placed to move forward concerns at pace and see the changes needed for the communities and people living in Nottingham.
NUH said it has already made progress in maternity care and would await national guidance on the Ockenden report.
Support and advice available for parents and families: