In 2017 Rhiannon Davies, her husband Richard and two other bereaved parents, Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths asked the UK health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to set up a public inquiry into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.Dominic Robertson, Parent involved in Shropshire baby deaths review, Shropshire Star, 4 January 2018. Accessed 22 December 2020. Though Hunt did not establish a public inquiry, he ordered an independent review in April 2017.Denis Campbel, Jeremy Hunt orders investigation into baby deaths at NHS trust, The Guardian, 12 April 2017. In May 2017 Donna Ockenden was appointed chair of the review, and it initially investigated 23 cases of potentially significant concern.
As the review uncovered wider evidence of maternity services failings at the trust,Sanya Burgess and Sunita Patel-Carstairs, 'She was lifeless': More maternity deaths under review at NHS trust, Sky News, 31 August 2018. Accessed 22 December 2020. with over 60 cases needing investigation,Shropshire maternity probe 'could be expanded to cover 60 baby deaths', Shropshire Star, 31 AUgust 2018. Accessed 22 December 2020. Davies called on Hunt's successor, Matt Hancock, to widen the review's remit.Henry Bodkin, Scandal-hit NHS Trust faces calls for wider investigation into deaths on maternity unit, The Telegraph, 31 August 2008. By June 2019 hundreds of cases were under investigation.Hundreds more cases in Shropshire baby deaths review, BBC News, 24 June 2019. Accessed 22 December 2020. In November 2019 the leaked interim report confirmed Davies' worst fears and vindicated her efforts:
When published in December 2020, the first Ockenden Report singled out the difference made by Davies, Stanton and two other bereaved parents, Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths:
In the House of Commons, Jeremy Hunt also paid tribute to the achievement of the grieving families, for overcoming a 'blame culture' to expose NHS failings.Dominic Robertson, Jeremy Hunt says Shropshire maternity findings are 'utterly shocking', 10 December 2020. Accessed 22 December 2020
As a consequence there was an agreement that mothers should not be put under pressure to have a natural birth when a Caesarean section would be safer. However as James Titcombe and Nadine Montgomery pointed out, in the week the Ockenden report was published, NHS adverts were still producing messages that promote the role of midwives as ‘guardians of normal birth’. As Lady Hale said in her judgement on Montgomery's case: some obstetricians feel "that a vaginal delivery is in some way morally preferable to a caesarean section: so much so that it justifies depriving the pregnant woman of the information needed for her to make a free choice."
The final report of The Ockenden review was published in March 2022 with wide ranging Local Actions For Learning for the local Trust and 15 Immediate and Essential Actions for maternity services across England.
References
External links Ockenden Maternity Review official website Ockenden Report – Final from the Independent Review of Maternity Services at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (250 pages) Summary Ockenden review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust: final report (401 pages)