More calls have been made for a public inquiry to take place into the maternity services at Nottingham hospitals after more than 100 parents joined a support group. Jack and Sarah Hawkins, who lost their baby Harriet after a catalogue of failures by Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) in 2016, said 106 people had come to them with their own experience of what they described as failings within the trust's maternity department.
Nottingham's three MPs have backed the calls for an inquiry, saying NUH was "still not safe" for mothers and babies. The NHS trust, which runs Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, was served a warning letter by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after it again found a number of concerns remained.
The health watchdog revisited the services between March 1-4 after rating them as 'inadequate' in October 2020. Leading board members at NUH were also accused of "not listening to patients and staff" at a Nottinghamshire County Council health scrutiny meeting last week.
Read more: Grieving families demand public inquiry into baby deaths
On Thursday, March 31, NUH chair Nick Carver told members at a board meeting that it was both "unarguable" that improvements had been made and that there was more to do. But Mr Hawkins told Nottinghamshire Live that the services were "unsafe and floundering".
He said: "They have missed so many opportunities in the past to make it safe and the fact they’ve actually missed those opportunities speaks volumes about how they actually consider us. We would say that they couldn't care less. We have a rapidly growing group of families coming to us."
Mr and Mrs Hawkins set up a Facebook group, named Nottingham Maternity Family Support Group, in December last year. They now have 106 members, many of whom they say have the same story as them, spanning mostly over the last five years. Mr Hawkins said the increase had been "logarithmic", with around 20 new members joining since the Ockenden Review.
“People in Nottingham are starting to realise that they were the recipients of unsafe care," he continued. "Our big worry is that NUH will try to wiggle out of personal responsibility by saying 'it’s a national staffing issue'.
"I have no doubt that’s what they’ll try and do. We’re horrified by the behaviours of some of the clinical team. The appalling care, nothing to do with staffing."
'The situation must be dire'
NUH, which is already subject to a thematic review by the Nottingham CCG and NHS England, said it was "fully co-operating" with the review and that it was doing "everything in our power" to ensure the best possible care. Director of midwifery Sharon Wallis said a 24/7 maternity advice line had been set up, and that there had been training around additional foetal monitoring and leadership development for senior midwives.
However, Mr Hawkins said a public inquiry was the only way families could gain closure, adding: "We need some serious help to hold people accountable. We are still calling for a public inquiry. If you can't answer the question of 'why did it happen?' Then it's needed."
Gary and Sarah Andrews, whose baby Wynter died after neglect in her care in 2019, reiterated their demands for an inquiry. "Our view that the problems at NUH are so deep-rooted in its culture and have been left without adequate redress by senior leadership for so long, that we don’t feel they are capable of change on their own. If the scrutiny committee are concerned, then, quite frankly, the situation must be dire," they said.
"There needs to be sufficient scrutiny as to what has gone so terribly wrong at NUH. There doesn’t appear to be any accountability at NUH. Who is asking the difficult questions that families desperately need to understand why they were harmed, or why they left hospital with an empty car seat?"
Nottingham's Labour MPs, Alex Norris, Lilian Greenwood and Nadia Whittome, released a joint statement saying that a public inquiry was needed. “Families in Nottingham have already waited far too long for failings in maternity services at NUH to be addressed," they said.
"We want the local NHS review of services to work but it’s clear that families are not getting the resolution they need and the care of mothers and babies at NUH is still not safe. This has to change. The events of this week show that the public inquiry into maternity services at NUH, that we have long called for, is needed. Lessons must be learned to ensure that no one else has to go through what these families have suffered.”
A spokesperson for NUH said: "We are doing everything in our power to ensure the families using our maternity services get the best possible care and we are fully co-operating with the ongoing independent review, commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group."
Speaking after the health scrutiny meeting, acting chief executive, Rupert Egginton, said: “We certainly had some very personal reflections from some of the councillors in the meeting. When we hear those things, it’s important for all of us to reflect on those issues. We don’t always get it right within the trust, we know that. When we don’t get it right we should apologise and we have done that.
“We know there’s a lot to do to improve our services, we want them to be the very best, that’s our aspiration. We have started on that journey and we are making improvements. There’s a long way to go and we recognise that.”
