Police investigation looms over what could become the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history

Police are to speak to the midwife leading the review into what could become the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history.

Nottinghamshire Chief Constable Kate Meynell attended a public meeting yesterday where it was said she had pledged to review cases – paving the way for a potential criminal investigation.

It comes after it emerged the inquiry into baby deaths at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will be the largest ever carried out in the UK with 1,700 cases now being examined.

Dozens of babies died or were left with serious injuries in maternity units at the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital.

Bereaved parents then faced a battle for answers from the hospital which they accused of lacking transparency.

Nottinghamshire Chief Constable Kate Meynell (pictured) attended a public meeting yesterday where it was said she had pledged to review cases – paving the way for a potential criminal investigation

It comes after it emerged the inquiry into baby deaths at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will be the largest ever carried out in the UK with 1,700 cases now being examined. Dozens of babies died or were left with serious injuries in maternity units at the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital (pictured)

The inquiry is being led by Donna Ockenden, the midwifery expert whose report into the scandal at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust found that failures had led to more than 200 deaths of babies. About 1,500 families had their cases investigated.

Nottingham has accepted its maternity services were unsafe and has paid almost £90million in compensation. 

The claims related to dozens of deaths, stillbirths and 46 cases of babies left brain damaged after mistakes. 

Ms Ockenden began her review in September 2022. At a meeting yesterday she said around 1,700 cases will be examined.

Some families wept as Ms Ockenden pledged to ‘do all I can’ to make sure no one else suffers the same harm. 

She told the audience that behind the numbers are mothers and babies who suffered harm – ‘often avoidable, life-changing harm made worse by having to fight to be heard’.

She said: ‘I know there are local families struggling to provide 24-hour care for babies who have been left severely brain damaged. 

‘I have heard from a mother whose baby is so poorly she asks herself regularly, “would it have been better if my baby had passed away?”

‘I know there are families who never brought their babies home, or babies who did come home but died shortly afterwards.

‘I know there are little boys and girls out there in Nottinghamshire today without their mummy as we all celebrate the end of the school year.’

The trust had planned to apologise to the families (like Sarah and Jack Hawkins, with their daughter Lottie (family pictured), who lost their daughter Harriet in childbirth in 2016 due to failings within Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust) but those affected said it would be more ‘meaningful’ if it came after recommendations from Ms Ockenden’s review are taken into account

Trust chief Anthony May, who came into office last September, said: ‘Since I have been in the trust, I have given a commitment to all the families affected by these tragic events that I will listen to them. 

‘Some of the stories I have heard will undoubtedly stay with me for a very long time but it pales into insignificance to the pain these families have endured.’

The trust had planned to apologise to the families but those affected said it would be more ‘meaningful’ if it came after recommendations from Ms Ockenden’s review are taken into account.

Nick Carver, NUH’s chairman since February 2022, said it has ‘failed’ families and the community in the past.

Gary Andrews, whose daughter Wynter died 23 minutes after she was born at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre in 2019, asked Mr May and Mr Carver: ‘Why is it left to yourselves to pick up the pieces… in Nottingham, when senior leaders in our view abandoned ship to avoid scrutiny?’