An inquiry into the deaths of babies and mothers at an NHS maternity unit, allegedly as a result of poor care, is being widened to look into other cases of patients apparently suffering serious harm.
NHS Improvement said the investigation, by midwife Donna Ockenden, will look into more than the 23 cases originally planned after claims that about 40 other incidents merited investigation.
Ockenden was commissioned in April 2017 by the then health secretary Jeremy Hunt to look into the deaths of 23 babies and mothers at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
The Health Service Journal website on Thursday claimed that at least 60 cases of infant and maternal deaths and babies suffering brain damage had been identified. Its report included suggestions that the scandal at the West Midlands trust may prove bigger than that at the Morecambe Bay trust in Cumbria, where one mother and 11 babies died avoidable deaths.
However, the Midlands trust has rejected the HSJ’s report as “factually incorrect and untrue” and criticised the publication for its “irresponsible and scaremongering” reporting.
The fresh dispute over the quality of maternity care at the trust centres on a separate inquiry, which the trust itself has been undertaking, into historical cases of injury caused by alleged poor care. The cases reported to its “legacy review” are additional to the 23 that Ockenden began investigating.
Maternity care at the trust in recent years has been the subject of no fewer than six separate inquiries, including one by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Three separate reviews are continuing into the death of a mother and two babies there last December.
A spokesperson for the health service regulator NHS Improvement, which oversees patient safety and is in overall charge of the Ockenden inquiry, said: “We have agreed to consider additional historical investigations that have been highlighted since our independent review, led by Donna Ockenden, was announced in April 2017, where women, infants and newborn babies had died or suffered harm in the maternity services provided by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
“This includes the cases that the trust had considered as part of its legacy review, as well as the finding of the review it commissioned the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to undertake.”
It admitted that patients had come to harm as a result of “failings” in maternity and neonatal care at the trust, which first emerged in 2016.
The Shrewsbury and Telford trust disputes HSJ’s contention that “at least 60 separate cases including baby deaths, brain injuries, and at least four deaths of mothers, have now been identified at the trust”.
While it agrees that 40 cases between 1998 and 2017 were looked at by its “legacy review” it insists the total number of them from which lessons can be learned, beyond Ockenden’s 23, is 12, not 40.
In a statement on Friday, the trust said: “Of these 40, there were no signs of failure of care in 23 reviews and five families were not identifiable from the information available. We have written to the remaining 12 families to say there may be potential for further learning and to seek permission for their care to be reviewed by independent clinical experts to ensure any learning is identified.” It reached its conclusions after doctors from both the trust and elsewhere in the local NHS looked in detail at the 35 cases. Its reference to “further learning” suggests that mistakes were made, but it is unclear what harm, if any, resulted from that.
Some of the 12 families the trust has since contatced are happy for reviews to proceed, but others are not. The reviews are due to begin soon.
Simon Wright, the trust’s chief executive, added: “The death of any baby is a terrible ordeal for any family. We take our responsibilities in reviewing these cases very seriously. To suggest that there are more cases which have not been revealed when this is simply untrue is irresponsible and scaremongering. This will cause unnecessary anxiety amongst women going through one of the most important times of their life and I would like to assure them that our maternity services are a safe environment with dedicated caring staff.”
Dr Kathy McLean, the NHSI’s executive medical director and chief operating officer, said: “Our independent [Ockenden] review will consider everything it can to ensure Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is equipped to learn from the previous failings in its maternity and neonatal services. This includes continuing to examine the 23 historical investigations identified in April 2017, as well as investigations that have been highlighted since then.”
