Second report into Shropshire maternity scandal to be published this week

The long-awaited final report of the Ockenden Review into maternity services at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) will be made public on Wednesday.

It comes after the report was due to be published last week but was delayed due to issues with 'parliamentary processes'.

The publication is expected to outline experiences of families in 1,862 cases which have been involved in the review – and is likely to include recommendations for improvements in maternity services at SaTH, as well as across the wider NHS.

Maternity expert Donna Ockenden has been conducting the inquiry since 2017 and says she “cried” after hearing harrowing evidence.

She told The Sunday Times: “We have seen families that have been split apart, families where relationships have been broken, cases of trauma and PTSD that have persisted for years after the event as well as terrible, terrible sadness. At times, after meeting families, I went back to my hotel room and I cried.”

Wednesday's publication will be the second, after an initial report highlighted the experiences of families in 250 cases.

The findings, published in December 2020, listed shocking experiences, and led to a series of recommendations for improvements.

Amongst the issues highlighted in the first report were grieving mothers being blamed for their loss, "repeated failures" to escalate concerns for further opinion and review, and several instances were where bereavement care was "inadequate or non-existent".

The inquiry was launched after Rhiannon Davies and her partner Richard Stanton, and Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths, wrote to the-then health secretary Jeremy Hunt about their concerns over the trust in 2017.

Both families had suffered tragedy with the deaths of Ms Davies and Mr Stanton's daughter, Kate, and Mr and Mrs Griffiths' daughter, Pippa, judged to have been avoidable.

The scope of the investigation has expanded significantly throughout the review.

The initial inquiry was looking at around 60 cases, but that has risen to nearly 1,862.

While the inquiry has been ongoing West Mercia Police have also launched a criminal investigation into maternity care at the trust, called Operation Lincoln.