Report on Nottingham NHS maternity scandal to reveal ‘horrendous’ failings

The CQC recently said maternity services at both of the trust’s hospitals had improved but it continued to rate them as ‘requires improvement’. Photograph: Chris Whiteman/Alamy View image in fullscreen The CQC recently said maternity services at both of the trust’s hospitals had improved but it continued to rate them as ‘requires improvement’. Photograph: Chris Whiteman/Alamy Report on Nottingham NHS maternity scandal to reveal ‘horrendous’ failings Insider indicates Ockenden inquiry has uncovered appalling behaviour including racism toward mothers The report of the inquiry into the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history will outline “horrendous” failings in the care provided to women in Nottingham , the Guardian can reveal. A catalogue of appalling behaviour over many years by staff at the city’s two hospitals – Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City hospital – included racism towards mothers, it will say. The NHS is bracing itself for the publication on Wednesday of a report by Donna Ockenden on 2,500 cases involving babies and mothers dying or being injured, and babies being stillborn, while under the care of Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust between 1 April 2012 and 31 May 2025. A senior source with knowledge of Ockenden’s conclusions said: “The findings in the Nottingham report will be very bad. It’s going to be horrendous. There will be some pretty challenging stuff in the report.” View image in fullscreen Donna Ockenden has led the review into the Nottingham maternity scandal. Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian The document will stretch to more than 350 pages. Ockenden, a senior midwife and expert in maternity care failings, began her inquiry into Nottingham more than four years ago, in May 2022. About 2,505 families – more than in any previous maternity scandal – and approximately 850 staff and ex-staff of the NHS trust have given evidence to it. Ockenden was appointed after families demanded a full-scale inquiry into what they said was the trust’s poor and dangerous treatment of women during their pregnancy, and especially when giving birth. Nottinghamshire police are still considering whether to charge the trust with corporate manslaughter. The force’s Operation Perth has been examining the care that at least 200 families received. In anticipation of Ockenden’s report, the Nottingham Maternity Families Group urged Keir Starmer to order a statutory public inquiry into maternity care across England as a whole. “We have every confidence that Donna Ockenden and her team have left no stone unturned in uncovering the unsafe practices, cultural failures and inadequate leadership that have contributed to avoidable maternal and baby deaths, stillbirths and life-changing brain injuries over many years,” the group said in a statement to the Guardian. It said Ockenden’s recommendations must be “implemented in full. Anything less would be a betrayal of the families whose suffering has made this review necessary. We know that the prob