Nottinghamshire police have announced they are launching a criminal investigation into maternity failings at Nottingham university hospitals (NUH) NHS trust, after hundreds families raised concerns to an independent review.
In January the trust was fined a record £800,000 after admitting to failings in the care of a woman and her baby, who died minutes after being born.
In a statement released on Thursday, the chief constable of Nottinghamshire police, Kate Meynell, said officers were preparing a criminal investigation and were planning to meet affected families soon.
The update came off the back of a meeting with Donna Ockenden, the midwifery expert who is leading an independent review into maternity services at the trust after there were “significant concerns raised regarding the quality and safety of maternity services”.
Meynell said: “We want to work alongside the review but also ensure that we do not hinder its progress. However, I am in a position to say we are preparing to launch a police investigation. We plan to hold preliminary discussions with some local families in the near future.”
She added that Anthony May OBE, the chief executive of NUH, who came into the post last September, “has committed to fully cooperate with this police investigation”.
A statement issued on behalf of some of the affected parents said: “We welcome the long-awaited news of this police investigation and we are very grateful to the chief constable, Kate Meynell, for her decision.
“There will be a wealth of information from victim families for her team to use. A large number of us have alleged crimes and we will be sharing our evidence with the police to assist them with their investigations.
“There has been poor maternity care as well as poor investigation of that care at Nottingham university hospitals trust over many years.”
The Ockenden-led review, which began a year ago, is already working with more than 700 families who came forward with concerns about the treatment they received, and this number is expected to rise to 1,800.
The review team is planning to implement an opt-out approach, meaning about 1,000 families will be contacted to ask if they want to be involved in their investigation, and it will become the largest ever review of its kind carried out in the UK.
About 700 former and current members of staff are also working with the review team.
Last week a number of families called for police to investigate, including Sarah and Jack Hawkins, whose daughter, Harriet, was stillborn in Nottingham city hospital.
Speaking to ITV News Central, Sarah Hawkins said: “The clinicians who failed us, the managers who failed us, have not been held to account. They’re fully working, and in any other walk of life, if hundreds of babies were being killed and mothers being harmed, action would be taken.”
Ockenden also led the review into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, which became the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history after it concluded 300 babies died or were left brain-damaged due to inadequate care.
Meynell said Nottinghamshire police were looking at the work being done by West Mercia police to investigate the Shrewsbury and Telford scandal to help guide their investigation.
In a statement, May said: “From the time of my appointment at NUH, I have expressed my commitment to the independent review. I have given the same commitment to the chief constable in respect of any police investigation.”
He said the trust would “continue with our maternity improvement programme”, with changes to “staffing levels, training, compliance with guidelines, record-keeping and the provision and use of equipment”.
A report from the Care Quality Commission into current maternity services at the trust is due to be published on 13 September.
