Chair confirmed for national maternity investigation as Shropshire MP says families who were let down deserve progress
A chair has been appointed to lead a national investigation into maternity and neonatal care.
Baroness Valerie Amos will be in charge of the investigation after being selected by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Families involved in guiding the review, including those in Shropshire, were approached by the Government and asked for their views on the shortlist of candidates for the role.
Donna Ockenden, who led the inquiry into Shropshire's shocking maternity scandal, was one of those shortlisted.
Mrs Ockenden, who is carrying out an ongoing review into Nottingham's maternity services, was not selected.
The government review follows a series of maternity scandals across the country - including the harrowing findings of Mrs Ockenden's inquiry into the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
The report, published in March 2022, found more than 200 cases where mothers died, babies were stillborn or there was neonatal death or significant or major concerns – and where different care would have resulted in a different outcome.
Another 106 cases involving cerebral palsy and brain damage were found to have the same concern, with the likelihood that better care would have led to a better outcome.
The review included cases as early as 1973 and as recent as 2020 - but mainly covered the period from 2000 to 2019.
