Six deaths of women due to poor care, and hundreds of other cases of potentially avoidable harm to mothers and their babies happened over 13 years at Nottingham University Hospitals, a major inquiry has found.
There were multiple causes, including midwives ignoring women’s concerns, failing to do basic safety checks during labour and delays in carrying out crucial interventions like Caesarean sections.
These were compounded by understaffing that left wards in “crisis mode”, constant management turnover and a “toxic” workplace culture of bullying and cliques, where mistakes got covered up rather than lessons learned, concludes the report. It was led by Donna Ockenden, a midwife and safety investigator, after a three-year investigation involving more than 2,500 families.
Shorts
She found that 520 mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm or death, with at least 156 cases involving the deaths of babies.
