Leading midwife Donna Ockenden has said she hopes to be in Nottingham 'soon' to speak to families affected by failures at Nottingham hospital's maternity services. She said the latest inadequate rating of the departments Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) by healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) made for "stark reading".
Ms Ockenden, who uncovered 200 avoidable baby deaths at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust across two decades, was hired to conduct a similar review of services at Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital. It came after more than 100 families wrote to Health Secretary Sajid Javid demanding the action, with the initial review being scrapped.
Following her appointment on Thursday, May 26, Ms Ockenden told Nottinghamshire Live she was "really delighted and really honoured" by the fact families asked for her specifically. "It's a huge responsibility that our team will take really seriously and I give my word to families, people, the community around Nottingham and the staff at the trust that we will do the very best we can for you all," she said.
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"Those families have been through the most unimaginable grief that most of us in our lives will hopefully never have to endure. They're just such sad stories, so I give my word that my team and I will carry out our work with a huge amount of care and will listen to and work with them."
Ms Ockenden spoke on the same day the latest CQC report into NUH maternity was released, which found a number of issues had still not been addressed. "I've had a look at the CQC reports and clearly maternity services at the trust are in significant difficulties," she continued. "It's also clear they've been in significant difficulty for some time.
"It makes stark reading, and clearly the maternity services at the trust have got a lot of work to do and they need to do it at pace." Sarah and Jack Hawkins, whose baby Harriet was stillborn after a series of mistakes, said the senior midwife would bring "honesty, independence and empathy" to the inquiry.
"We'll start to be listened to and be believed, because so far none of the families feel like they've been believed," said Mrs Hawkins. "Everyone's so relieved that we've now got this opportunity to give our stories and accounts of what happened, and just to start getting answers. I think all of the families we speak to, they don't want this to happen to someone else. It's never going to bring back our dead babies or un-harm all these harmed families, but at least it might be clearer with answers."
However, Mr Hawkins said he was still "frightened" at the culture amongst NUH's leadership, adding that the CQC report gave them a sense of "déjà vu". "..and you know what? That Harriet's death was in vain," he said.
"They had such an opportunity with us and with Harriet to learn and to change. To see that they are more interested in drawing a line under and moving forwards than learning and empathising and caring, there's no surprise in that CQC report."
Ms Ockenden, who is finishing her work in Shropshire, said she hoped to be in Nottingham soon, and her "first priority" was to meet families. She added that she hoped her team of around 80 healthcare professionals would stay onboard.
"Depending on the size and scope of the review I think it would make sense for me to recruit some more members to the team too," she said. Sharon Wallis, director of midwifery at NUH, said: "Our teams are working hard to make the necessary improvements, but recognise we have more to do and are absolutely determined to speed up the pace of change and deliver quality services for women and their families."
