Families call to meet PM over maternity failings

Parents involved in an independent review into Nottingham's maternity services say they want to meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to talk about the failings in care across the NHS.

On Monday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced a "rapid" investigation into maternity care in England.

Sarah and Jack Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016 following maternity failings at Nottingham City Hospital, are calling for more action in the form of a statutory public inquiry.

In February Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust - which is at the centre of the largest ever review into NHS failings - was given a record £1.6m fine over failings around the deaths of three babies.

Dr Hawkins said similar reviews into NHS failings had taken place and not achieved the results families had wanted, which is why he has backed calls for a national judge-led public inquiry.

"I think we're very clear that it's been tried before in various subtly different ways, and it will not work," he said.

"What we absolutely have to have is a statutory public inquiry, where people give evidence under oath, and are at risk of perjury in a court, just like the Post Office inquiry.

"There are thousands and thousands of avoidable dead babies and children in this country, in a system run by the state."

Ms Hawkins and other affected families met Streeting last week.

While she said he "has done more for us as families than any other health secretary", the desire for a judge-led inquiry remains.

"Families still don't feel like this is far enough," she said.

"I think it is happening right across England, and there may be hotspots where people are voicing their concerns and their thoughts, but there are also lots of families out there who are on their own and don't have support, and they really need a widespread public inquiry to look at all of this.

"Nottingham families are very keen that the prime minister now comes up and sees us and sees the damage and the harm that we will suffer for the rest of our lives.

"It's important that he knows not only what's going on in Nottingham but what's going on across the country."

Felicity Benyon was fitted with a stoma in 2015 after her bladder was removed in error during an emergency hysterectomy after a Caesarean section.

She said her experience "has got more scary as the years have gone on" as she had heard about failings "not only in NHS maternity but the NHS as a whole".

"The more and more I have an involvement with the NHS, each time they mess something up, and it just makes it harder and harder for me to see a doctor or go to hospital," she told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"I have an absolute fear now of doctors or anything [in a] hospital or medical setting - there is no trust."

Ms Benyon, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said she supported the ongoing Ockenden review, which was "really getting to the root causes of what's gone wrong at NUH".

She described the new national investigation as "a positive step forward", but more needed to be done.

"It doesn't hold anyone to account, and accountability is a huge part of what we feel is needed, because too many people have got away with too much for too long," she said.

"I think the plan is a great first start for short-term goals, for making quick changes for making mums and babies safer, but we need a public inquiry to hold people to account."

By Rob Sissons, health correspondent, BBC East Midlands

Nothing has ever come easy for Nottingham's campaigning families harmed by catastrophic maternity failings - they had to fight for a meaningful review into Nottingham's maternity services after the first one was discredited.

Wes Streeting apologised that they had to fight so hard for justice after they described to him being "gaslit, ignored and lied to".

The rapid investigation ordered by the current health secretary will look at wider major concerns across the country, and is not expected to get going much before August and deliver findings by Christmas.

There is going to be a focus on 10 of what are described as the "worst performing" maternity services, but it is not clear how exactly these will be selected apart from it being data-driven, and some communities may feel left behind in this process.

Harmed families who campaign in Nottingham are convinced nothing short of a major national judge-led statutory public inquiry will deliver meaningful change and expose the truth of what has gone wrong and cover-ups.

The health secretary has left the door open to a national inquiry and is expected to decide whether to recommend one after the rapid investigation reports back.

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