The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust

Our work assessing maternity care provision by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust concluded with publication of our Report in March 2022 (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-of-the-ockenden-review).

As of June 2024 we are setting up connections between the Trust and families affected by the Trust’s maternity care provision. The purpose of this is to help the Trust with implementation of the Immediate and Essential Actions (IEAs) and Local Actions for Learning (LAFL) in our Report. If you want to know more about this, or you are interested in becoming involved, please email us at maternityreview@donnaockenden.com

We appreciate that many families may feel they do not wish to be involved, which is of course perfectly fine. If you would like to be involved you can have as little or as much engagement as you wish. This might include meeting with Donna Ockenden and the team with the Trust on an occasional basis and providing feedback to the Trust from a family perspective. Donna is likely to be in Shrewsbury next in early August 2024.

Today, Wednesday 30 March 2022, marks the publication of our final report of the Independent Review of maternity services at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. Our independent multi – professional team of midwives and doctors including obstetricians, neonatologists, obstetric anaesthetists, a physician, cardiologist, neurologist and others have examined the maternity care and treatment provided to 1,486 families over two decades at the Trust.

This report identifies more than 60 Local Actions for Learning for the Trust and another 15 key Immediate and Essential Actions to improve all maternity services in England, including financing a safe and sustainable maternity and neonatal workforce and ensuring training for the whole maternity team meets the needs of todays maternity services. We state that trust Boards must have oversight and understanding of their maternity services. Trust boards must ensure that they listen to and hear local families and their own staff. 

Read the Final Report | Read the Press Release

Message from Donna Ockenden – Chair of the Independent maternity review

The Shrewsbury and Telford Maternity Review has now concluded and published its final report. The Chair, Donna Ockenden, and her team thank all the families and stakeholders for their cooperation, support and assistance.

As the review has now concluded the maternity review team will not be in a position to deal with any further communications and enquiries. We are now completely focused on providing feedback to our families who are already within the review. You are invited to read the Final Report, a link to which can be found here, if you would like to know more about the conclusions of the Review.

If you are a patient or a family member of a patient and you have a new enquiry about the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, we encourage you to direct these to sath.maternitycare@nhs.net. Alternatively, if you have a complaint about your care please refer to https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/how-to-complain-to-the-nhs

If you have queries or concerns about any other NHS Trusts or services, please contact the Chief Executive’s Office or the PALS department at the correct Trust.

Unfortunately we are not able to answer queries or deal with concerns outside of the original Terms of Reference of our maternity review. We can now only answer emails and other communications from our group of families that are already part of this review. 

With thanks and best wishes
Donna Ockenden

Today, Wednesday 30 March 2022, marks the publication of our final report of the Independent Review of maternity services at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. Our independent multi – professional team of midwives and doctors including obstetricians, neonatologists, obstetric anaesthetists, a physician, cardiologist, neurologist and others have examined the maternity care and treatment provided to 1,486 families over two decades at the Trust.

This report identifies more than 60 Local Actions for Learning for the Trust and another 15 key Immediate and Essential Actions to improve all maternity services in England, including financing a safe and sustainable maternity and neonatal workforce and ensuring training for the whole maternity team meets the needs of todays maternity services. We state that trust Boards must have oversight and understanding of their maternity services. Trust boards must ensure that they listen to and hear local families and their own staff.

Read the Final Report | Read the Press Release

The Review Team has been liaising with NHS England and Improvement and the Department of Health and Social Care and can now confirm that the second report of the Independent Maternity Review of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust will be published no later than 24 March 2022. 

The second report will build upon the work of the first report to ensure the Local Actions for Learning and Immediate and Essential Actions are strengthened and implemented at the Trust and across the wider maternity system in England. We have already seen some excellent progress and significant amounts of new funding for maternity services across England since the publication of the first report.

Thank you for your patience, an update on the precise date of publication will be provided as soon as possible.

Please see below a short video capturing the September update for families involved in the Maternity Review.

The NHS Maternity Scandal: Inside a crisis

The safety of maternity services has not been far from the news of late, with a growing number of examples of poor care, with recent examples including East Kent Hospitals University Trust and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.

On Wednesday 11 August, Donna Ockenden, Chair of the Independent Maternity Review at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, spoke as part of a panel for The Independent’s special webinar The NHS Maternity Scandal: Inside a crisis. This panel was chaired by Shaun Lintern and the other panelists included: Dr Eddie Morris, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and James Titcombe, a patient safety campaigner and bereaved father.

You can see the article in The Independent and a recording of the webinar here. The link will take you to an article where you can register to watch the webinar free of charge.

The next meeting of the Ockenden Report Assurance Committee will be held on the 24^th June

Read more

Please read Donna’s personal letter to all current and former staff at SaTH to encourage their participation in the review.

Read letter

Please see below a short video capturing May update for families involved in the Maternity Review. The next update will take place on the 13^th July 2021

Please see below video capturing family questions submitted to the Maternity Review Team following the family update session on the 17^th May 2021.

Read the statement

Read press release

The NHS is to spend £95million on improving safety in maternity services in England, following on from the first report of the Ockenden Review of maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust (SaTH).

The report outlined the immediate and essential actions and local actions for learning to improve maternity care at SaTH and in the wider maternity system across England. 

The additional money will be used to increase the numbers of midwives and doctors in hospitals. There will also be “training and development programmes to support culture and leadership”.

Read NHS Improvement Board meeting papers  

Read more on BBC News online

Please see below video recorded to capture family questions that were submitted to the Maternity Review Team following the family update session on Tuesday 23^rd March 2021.