Nearly 2,000 cases unearthed by inquiry into maternity scandal at trust

In an announcement today, chief executive of SaTH Louise Bennett said the independent review into poor maternity care at the trust, chaired by Donna Ockenden would be closing to new cases from today.

The announcement confirmed cases have reached 1,862 and the review is due to be published with recommendations by next year.

The statement, published by the trust said: “The review is being taken very seriously by our staff too, who are committed to providing our patients with the highest standards of care and making the necessary further improvements to our maternity services.

“There is no doubt that this continues to be a difficult and painful experience for many families, and I am truly sorry for their distress. We should have provided far better care for these families at what was one of the most important times in their lives and we have let them down.”

NHSE/I has also carried out a review into the trust’s handling of a report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2017, to examine complaints that the report was withheld from the trust board for 12 months, and that the trust management sought to water it down by requesting a further document be produced by RCOG.

The trust’s current chair, Ben Reid, said earlier this year that attempts had been made by the trust “to soften that report”.

The NHSE/I review found “the primary purpose of the follow up exercise from the trust’s perspective was to mitigate the perceived adverse impact of publishing the initial report.”

Referring to the additional document requested by the trust from RCOG, the review said: “The overall result was a document that gave the impression that issues in the maternity service had been largely resolved, when in fact there was significant further work to do.”

However, overall the review found the RCOG report was not withheld from the trust board, but should have gone through forums sooner.