Experts to visit troubled Shrewsbury and Telford hospital trust after damning maternity report
An MP has been assured that work is being done to improve maternity care at hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford following a highly critical report which found that more than 200 babies may have died unnecessarily.
Health minister Maria Caulfield told Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, that two of the country’s top experts would be visiting the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) on May 12 to see if there were any other measures that could be taken to improve standards.
Deputy chief midwifery officer Sascha Wells-Munro and national specialty adviser for obstetrics, Professor Donald Peebles, will meet with senior figures at the trust to look at what further support can be provided.
Mr Pritchard had tabled a question to Health Secretary Nadim Zahawi asking what steps had been taken to improve maternity services at SaTH since the publication of the Ockenden Review last month.
Donna Ockenden’s report said 201 babies could or would have been saved had the trust provided better care.
Mrs Ockenden said “repeated errors in care” led to injuries to either mothers or babies. She said the trust “failed to investigate, failed to learn and failed to improve,” and staff were frightened to speak out about failings amid “a culture of undermining and bullying.”
Health minister Maria Caulfield told Mr Pritchard that NHS England and NHS Improvement were working with the trust to implement all the local actions set out in Mrs Ockenden’s report.
Miss Caulfield said the trust had been placed under the maternity safety support programme – a form of special measures to drive up standards – since 2018.
“This programme involves senior experienced midwives and obstetricians providing intensive support to the trust through visits, mentoring, peer support, review of key documents, sharing good working practice and leadership development to improve maternity services,” she said.
Miss Caulfield said the trust had a full-time dedicated maternity improvement adviser.
“The deputy chief midwifery officer, Sascha Wells-Munro, and the national specialty adviser for obstetrics, Professor Donald Peebles, plan to meet the leadership team at the Trust on May 12 to agree any further support required, working with the maternity improvement adviser,” she said.
The Ockenden review team identified 15 immediate and essential actions “which must be implemented by all trusts in England providing maternity services” in the wake of the scandal.
She said improvements needed to be made to the way complaints were handled and investigated, and more effort needed to be made to learn from the deaths of mothers.
Mrs Ockenden also raised issues with workforce funding, planning and sustainability, staffing levels, and accountability.
Improvements were needed in training, complex antenatal care, postnatal care, bereavement care, neonatal care and support given to families.
Ms Ockenden said it is absolutely clear that there is an urgent need for a robust and funded England-wide maternity workforce plan starting right now, without delay, and continuing over multiple years.
