​Monday 21st July 2025.

 

The leading investigator into maternity scandals in English hospitals has called upon the NHS to dramatically change culture and to listen to  mothers and fathers.

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Donna Ockenden, the former Midwife who led investigations into maternity scandals in Shrewsbury and Telford as well as Nottingham (where a police inquiry is active)  told BBC Radio Four’s Justin Webb;

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 ‘There is a multiplicity of issues. This government came in last year, they have inherited a parlous state…in terms of insufficient workforce, insufficient training and insufficient funding…there is however a cultural issue…I hear from families…they’re not listened to and when they are raising concerns, they’re being ignored…there is a cultural issue which needs to be fixed’

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Responding to claims by NHS Resolution, which deals with clinical negligence claims, that the service is facing costs of up to £27bn, she told the BBC that the figures are staggering even though many may not reach high settlements;

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‘ Even if it is a potential sum, even if some of these claims don’t make it to the end…what I hear day in and day out, is the life changing harm that too many families are enduring.

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Justin Webb asked;  ‘Is it the things you have suggested (on maternity care) haven’t happened or what?’

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Donna Ockenden replied  ‘The fix is that every maternity service and we should say peri natal as we are also talking about neo-natal as well, absolutely has to sign up to mothers and fathers being at the heart of care…they are listened to…it’s a shift that has to happen’.  

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 Asked if there was hope she told listeners;

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‘‘Yes, absolutely so, in the last year there has been a shifting of the dial in a positive way. Our Secretary of State, Wes Streeting, is absolutely committed to listening to families, he’s had countless meetings with families in the last year…I’ve been at so many of them…we are dealing with an issue, a problem, a situation that has been allowed to develop over 10-15 years and he can’t fix that, we can’t fix that’ (quickly).

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The full interview can be heard on BBC Sounds and was broadcast at approximately 6.50am on BBC Radio Four.

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