‘Horrific’ maternity care failings at Nottingham NHS trust prompt calls for public inquiry

Families affected by the Nottingham maternity care scandal hold a minute’s silence during a press conference after the publication of Donna Ockenden’s report. Photograph: Jacob King/PA View image in fullscreen Families affected by the Nottingham maternity care scandal hold a minute’s silence during a press conference after the publication of Donna Ockenden’s report. Photograph: Jacob King/PA ‘Horrific’ maternity care failings at Nottingham NHS trust prompt calls for public inquiry Report uncovers biggest childbirth scandal in NHS history in which 520 mothers and babies suffered ‘potentially avoidable’ harm or died Horrific failings led to 520 mothers and babies in Nottingham suffering harm or dying, sparking calls for a public inquiry into maternity care across England. In all, 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered “potentially avoidable” outcomes, a damning three-year long review of the biggest childbirth scandal in NHS history concluded. James Murray, the health secretary, said the nature and scale of the failings exposed by Donna Ockenden’s report on maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH) between 2012 and 2025 were “horrific” and “chilling”. Families suffered “dangerously and tragically deficient care at almost every turn” and “the NHS failed them catastrophically”, said Murray. He was “devastated” and “heartbroken” to read Ockenden’s 401-page account of the “neglect, incompetence, racism, discrimination, contempt and harassment that so many suffered”. Ockenden, a respected maternity safety expert, painted a stark and detailed picture of maternity care at NUH’s two hospitals, Queen’s medical centre and Nottingham city hospital. “Multiple” women experienced dangerously poor and sometimes “cruel” care there, understaffing was routine, lessons from patient safety incidents were not learned, and bullying by “intimidating cliques” of staff was rife, she found. The Nottingham Maternity Families group, which represents about 600 harmed and bereaved families, asked Keir Starmer to establish a statutory public inquiry to investigate failings in maternity and neonatal care across the entire NHS “because safe care can only be consistently delivered when the full truth is known”. The government is considering that request, Murray said. “I don’t think we should take anything off the table at this stage,” he said when pressed on the possibility of such an investigation. But he stressed that affected families do not all support such a move. “When I’ve been talking to families, some want a public inquiry, others take a different view, but what unites all of the families I spoke to is a desire for accountability and a desire to see change happen in the way maternity services are delivered so that women are listened to,” he said. Ockenden and her team of maternity experts investigated the deaths of 27 mothers between 2006 and 2024 and “identified failures in care that may have or substantially impacted on the outcome in six dea