Committee tasked with overseeing hospital trust maternity improvements to hold first meeting
A committee created to oversee required improvements in maternity services at the county's major hospitals will hold its first meeting later this week.
The committee will be tasked with ensuring that progress is being made on recommendations from the Ockenden Report – a highly critical review of maternity services at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
The report, published in December last year, detailed a lengthy list of failings in care at the trust, drawing some harrowing conclusions about the experiences of families involved in the review.
SaTH, which manages both Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said that people would be able to watch the proceedings of the new 'Ockenden Report Assurance Committee' (ORAC), when it meets for the first time on Thursday.
The trust said all of the committee's meetings will take place in public 'to promote transparency and accountability'.
It added that it did not expect the committee to last longer than a year, and that its length would be "determined by its programme of work as agreed with the board of directors".
Louise Barnett, chief executive at SaTH, will sit on the committee alongside representatives from other organisations, including Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Maternity Voices Partnership, Clinical Commissioning Groups, and Healthwatch.
She said: "As we strive to implement all of the actions in the Ockenden Report for the women and families who use our maternity services, this committee will seek to provide assurance and tangible evidence that we are making improvements to the care and services that we provide in an open, accountable and inclusive way.”
The trust said the purpose of the committee is to "obtain and provide assurance in relation to the delivery, evidence, sustainability and impact of the implementation of the actions arising from the first report of the independent review into maternity services at SaTH".
The first committee meeting will take place from 8.30am to 11am on Thursday.
People can watch the proceedings via a link on the trust's website at https://www.sath.nhs.uk/news/ockenden-report-assurance-committee-to-hold-first-meeting/
