Hospital trust 'making progress' on requirements after damning maternity report
A hospital trust says it is making progress on recommendations outlined in a report into the county’s maternity scandal.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) said it has so far implemented 10 per cent of actions from the final Ockenden Report published earlier this year.
It comes three months after the harrowing report was made public.
It detailed a catalogue of shocking failings in maternity care at the trust.
The progress on requirements from the report comes after the trust completed all 52 of the actions it is responsible for that were recommended in the first interim Ockenden report, which was released in 2020.
There are six remaining, which are either led by external organisations or, dependent on them. The final review, which was published in March, set out 158 extensive and thorough actions for the trust to deliver.
Presented in the June Ockenden Report Assurance Committee (ORAC), the trust said that out of the 158 actions, 18 – 10 per cent – have been implemented so far.
The 18 actions implemented cover a range of themes including ensuring clinical practice, guidelines and audits are up to date and based on the best evidence, driving forward improvements in patient safety and quality of care, learning from complaints and compliments, and improving the trust’s bereavement support. Hayley Flavell, director of nursing at SaTH, said: “The trust has made significant progress in the provision of its maternity services, as noted recently by the Care Quality Commission, and our teams have urgently taken forward the findings and recommendations set out in the final Ockenden Report to build on this work.
“As noted at the most recent ORAC meeting, our Maternity Services now have a fully resourced senior leadership team and a powerful multi-disciplinary approach implemented that is working in conjunction with other improvement initiatives to deliver the actions set outWe know there is much more to do and we are committed to delivering clear and meaningful change for the women and families we serve.”
The Ockenden review’s final report detailed shocking finding about the experiences of women and mothers at the trust.
It found more than 200 cases where mothers died, where babies were stillborn, or there was neonatal death, had 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 better care likely to 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.
