Parents disappointed by health watchdog's 'defensive' response over maternity scandal

Two families whose babies died due to failings in care by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, say they are disappointed in the response from the health watchdog - the Care Quality Commission - after they sent a damning letter accusing it of being 'not fit for purpose.'

Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths lost their daughter Pippa at one day old in what was described as an avoidable death while under the care of Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust in 2016.

Their daughter would have been seven earlier this year.

Kayleigh Griffiths and husband Colin have been campaigning for an adequate review into the failings at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust Credit: ITV News Central

The couple's campaign along with Richard Stanton and Rhiannon Davies who lost their baby Kate at the same Trust in 2009, led to hundreds of other cases that were reviewed by former midwife Donna Ockenden.

As a result of the Ockenden report, hospitals with high perinational death rates are now being monitored by the Care Quality Commission or CQC but both couples say  their own research proves the health watchdog is not fit for purpose.

Pippa pictured with her parents and older sister died at a day old Credit: Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths

Kayleigh Griffiths said :“What we’re seeing now is more and more maternity units moving to inadequate and we think that hasn’t happened overnight.

"This has been a long term problem that hasn’t been picked up by the CQC."

In a letter sent last month to the chief executive of the CQC the families highlighted with examples what they described as a "lottery of misinformation" and called for immediate robust action.

In his reply the chief executive offered a meeting but Mr and MrsGriffith describe the reply as defensive and say they're disappointed  there was no proper acknowledgment of the CQC's own failings.

“We’ve always come up against defensiveness and that’s one thing we’ve learnt to accept. However given what has been uncovered you would expect a bit more acceptance of the failures with what has been proven by Ockenden.

“If they had done their job when they were supposed to do their job, if they had identified those issues when they had the chance thats 201 lives that have been lost in Shrewsbury and Telford alone.”

All four received MBES last month in the King's birthday Honours. Mrs Griffiths said: "I think the one thing is we've we've been recognized for our work, but our work is not over.

"It's just a continual journey of improvement. And actually, we still need to fight to get that improvement made. We're still got a very, very long way to go."

The Chief Executive of the CQC, Ian Trenholm said in a statement: "We have received a reply from Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths and Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton to our letter of 9 October which raises a number of additional points.

"I will be engaging with the families directly on those additional points and hope to set up a meeting with them soon to discuss in full."

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