Bereaved families in the East Midlands back calls for National inquiry into maternity services
Last updated 27th Sep 2023
Bereaved families in the East Midlands, who've lost babies due to failings in maternity care, are backing calls for the government to launch a national inquiry into maternity services.
It's following reports of failings in care at hospital trusts across the country.
The latest development comes out of Leicester- where the health watchdog downgraded the safety rating at University Hospitals of Leicester Trust to "inadequate".
Hospital bosses were told 'lives were at risk' following an inspection earlier this year.
Jo Holland's grandson Mason was stillborn in January 2022, two weeks after staff failed to diagnose her daughter Ellie with pre-eclampsia.
An investigation found there were multiple failings in her care.
She said: "If this was a lorry driver that had killed a child on a road...more than likely they would be facing manslaughter charged.
"What we're all absolutely tired of is, when you have a preventable death, the platitudes that you get, that they are going to have a reflective conversation.
"These are deaths...actual preventable deaths".
A letter, put together by 2 families has been sent to Health secretary Steve Barclay, demanding a public inquiry.
Jo agrees the time has come for the government to step in, adding:
"This is a huge scale of preventable deaths of children and harmed mums.
"This has to be done at a public inquiry level.
"There's this culture where staff are untouchable...there is no accountability.
"There has been no accountability for the failings that happened with Mason."
Jo's daughter Ellie and her partner Aaran Hodges have taken legal action against the trust since his death.
Julie Hogg, chief nurse at the trust, said:
"We apologise sincerely to any families that have experienced maternity care which fell short of the standards they should expect. We are always willing to meet with women and families and listen to any concerns.
"We follow nationally prescribed processes to understand the reasons behind deaths in our care.
"We know that the number of cases in which care has contributed to death at UHL is very low, and we use the learning from such incidents to improve our services."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:
“Every parent deserves to feel confident in the care they and their baby receive. These findings in Leicester are concerning and so we welcome the Care Quality Commission’s commitment to monitoring those trusts that are not providing an adequate standard, to ensure improvements are made.
“Nationally, we have invested £165 million a year since 2021 to grow the maternity workforce and improve neonatal services and we are promoting careers in midwifery by increasing training places by up to 3,650 over the past four years.
“The Care Quality Commission is also currently inspecting all NHS acute hospital maternity services that have not been inspected and rated since April 2021.”