The chair of a major review into Nottingham hospitals' maternity services says she underestimated 'how deep the distrust' was of the trust which runs them. Donna Ockenden, who is leading the probe following preventable deaths and harm at the maternity units at City Hospital and Queen's Medical Centre, said the uptake of a letter sent to 1,377 families was "very poor".
The letters were sent by Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Trust at the end of November and the end of January to families who had experienced tragedies such as stillbirths and neonatal deaths. However, just 360 have responded so far.
Ms Ockenden said the review would need to do something "radically different" to increase that number. Due to the low uptake, a group of bereaved families have urged NHS England to allow the review to adopt an 'opt-out' approach, which would automatically include the cases of all 1,377 families unless they said otherwise.
