Fourteen NHS trusts will be the focus of a national maternity investigation amid a ‘toxic cover-up culture’ that is putting mothers and babies at risk.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced a rapid examination of services following a string of major maternity scandals.
It includes East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, where a recent review found the deaths of 45 babies could have been avoided with proper treatment.
The investigation will also cover Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, where an investigation revealed more than 200 mothers and their babies might have survived with better care.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting today launched the investigation into what he believes is ‘systemic’ failure in NHS care.
He has said families who have lost babies at the hands of the NHS have often been ‘gaslit’ in their search for the truth.
‘I know that NHS maternity and neonatal workers want the best for these mothers and babies, and that the vast majority of births are safe and without incident, but I cannot turn a blind eye to failures in the system,’ he said.
‘Every single preventable tragedy is one too many. Harmed and bereaved families will be right at the heart of this investigation to ensure no-one has to suffer like this again.’
Speaking at Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists World Congress in June, the Health Secretary said he was launching the review after meeting dozens of families who had been bereaved by failings
In March 2022, an investigation into services at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS trust found that neglect and poor care provision caused the deaths of 200 babies and nine mothers
It comes as the head of the doctors’ regulator says harm to mothers and their babies is at risk of being normalised in maternity units owing to a ‘toxic’ culture of cover-up in the health service.
Charles Massey, chief executive of the General Medical Council (GMC), will tell delegates at a conference ‘something must have gone badly wrong’ in workplaces when trainee doctors are fearful of speaking up.
He suggested the ‘tribal’ nature of medicine could mean doctors and other staff are pitted against each other, which may prevent people raising their concerns or admitting when things go wrong.
‘That doctors are making life and death decisions in environments where they feel fearful to speak up is profoundly concerning,’ Mr Massey will tell the Health Service Journal patient safety congress in Manchester.
‘Those are the very factors that lead to cover-up over candour and obfuscation over honesty. And it is in those cultures that the greatest patient harm occurs.
‘Everyone in this room will be aware of the scandals of recent years concerning maternity care. This is one of the most high-risk and high-pressure areas of medicine.
‘One where the consequences of things going wrong can be especially tragic and far-reaching, affecting both a mother and her baby, not to mention their wider family.
‘The unthinkable – harm to mothers and their babies – is at risk of being normalised. And toxic culture is in no small part to blame.’
Mr Streeting has said the review would be co-produced with the victims of maternity scandals, giving families a voice into how the inquiry is run. This includes looking at individual cases of families in Leeds and Sussex who suffered from NHS failures
The investigation, which will be led by Baroness Valerie Amos, will include the following NHS Trusts: Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, Bradford Teaching Hospitals, East Kent Hospitals, Gloucestershire Hospitals, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Oxford University Hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay, University Hospitals Sussex and Yeovil District Hospital/Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.
The investigation will urgently look at a range of services across the entire maternity system, following independent reviews across multiple trusts that have revealed a pattern of similar failings – women’s voices ignored, safety concerns overlooked and poor leadership creating toxic cultures.
Baroness Amos said: ‘I will carry the weight of the loss suffered by families with me throughout this investigation.
‘I hope that we will be able to provide the answers that families are seeking and support the NHS in identifying areas of care requiring urgent reform.’
The investigation is expected to conclude in December.
