Hundreds of families who have potentially experienced poor maternity care in Nottingham are to receive a letter asking them to join a review, adding to the 1,000 previously contacted. Donna Ockenden, who is leading the probe following deaths at the maternity units at City Hospital and Queen's Medical Centre, said a total of 949 families and 400 current and former staff members had now made contact.
However, there are hundreds more families who are yet to get in touch with the review, which is set to become the largest maternity scandal in the history of the NHS. Ms Ockenden said it was "really, really important" for more families to come forward.
Last November, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) sent letters to a further 1,000 families who fell within the review's terms of reference. These are cases of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, babies with significant brain damage, severe maternal harm and maternal death.
Read more: Donna Ockenden's call to Nottingham hospital staff in maternity review update
Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live today (January 31), Ms Ockenden said only 226 of those had so far given consent to be included in the "huge" review and revealed NUH would be sending letters to an additional 300 families. "If they want to join the review they need to answer the letter and email us with their consent - it's a simple case of emailing nottsreview@donnaockenden.com with the simple message 'consent given'," she said.
"Look for those letters that may have even come in the week before Christmas because of the postal strikes and respond please. They can have as little or as much involvement as they want. They can just consent to the release of the medical records so our team can examine their case, or they can opt to tell us their story."
Ms Ockenden said the review was still in its early stages, but said a regular theme they had encountered when hearing from families was NUH not listening to concerns. "We've had a lot of families coming forward saying 'we tried to raise concerns but hit a brick wall, we tried and we tried until we had no more energy left to give this'," she said.
She also urged both those who had contacted previous review by Nottinghamshire CCG and more staff to come forward. "The message to staff is this is your big chance to get your voice heard by an independent team made up of clinicians on the ground like yourselves, so please look on our website, fill in our survey and leave your details if you want to," she said.
Ms Ockenden was appointed to lead the review In May last year after a campaign by bereaved parents. It comes after reports that dozens of babies had died or were left with serious injuries due to the care they received at NUH.
Sharon Wallis, Director of Midwifery, at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We recognise that we have not always listened to women and families as well as we should have done. We are working hard to improve this and have increased engagement with women and families in different ways. We use this information to help shape our services.
“We are committed to making the necessary and sustainable improvements to provide the best possible care for women and families who use our maternity services. This is why we will continue to do all we can to support the work of Donna Ockenden’s independent review.
“This commitment includes ensuring that family voices are heard and we are encouraging people who have significant or serious concerns about their maternity care, to contact the review team. We are also encouraging current and former staff who work directly in or closely with our maternity services, to come forward and engage with the review.”
Staff can contact the review and give an anonymous account by emailing staffvoices@donnaockenden.com
Families wishing to contact the review can do so by emailing nottsreview@donnaockenden.com or by filling out an online form here
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