The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and the two individual hospitals under management are at the centre of the largest maternity scandal to ever hit the NHS.
The Ockenden Report
The Ockenden Review is an official investigation into maternity services at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury run by the Trust.
The review led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden looked at cases involving 1486 families covering 1,592 clinical incidents, mostly between 2000-2019.
Poor maternity care led to more than 200 avoidable baby deaths and a further 94 babies suffered skull fractures, broken bones or developed cerebral palsy after traumatic forceps deliveries, while others were starved of oxygen and experienced life-changing brain injuries due to the catastrophic failings in care. In addition nine mothers would have survived had they not been forced to have natural births despite the fact they should have been offered a caesarean section.
The findings of the review were that “failures in care were repeated from one incident to the next” and babies came to harm due to “ineffective monitoring of foetal growth and a culture of reluctance to perform Caesarean sections”. The review has made over 60 recommendations to the Trust regarding their practices.
Contact our medical negligence solicitors
If you or your loved one has suffered due to inadequate or negligent maternity care at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, then please contact us today. You can call us free on 0808 164 0808, or request a call back and we will call you.
Whilst the investigation concerns The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust we are already helping families affected by these and additional issues from other NHS Trusts. We specialise in cases concerning, but not limited to:
- Stillbirths;
- Deaths of babies in the neonatal period;
- Deaths of mothers during or after childbirth;
- Babies suffering injury;
- Babies suffering brain damage;
- Cerebral palsy;
- Mothers suffering psychological damage from their experiences.
If any of these issues has affected you or someone close to you, our team of specialist lawyers are here to advise and guide you through the litigation process.