The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust is holding its Annual Public Meeting on Monday 10th July 2023, 12.00–3.30pm at Nottingham Trent University, City Campus. At this meeting there will be an update on the ongoing independent review and the work the Trust is doing to improve maternity services.

Donna Ockenden and several of the families affected by the failures in maternity care will be present at this meeting to hear what the Trust has to say, however ahead of the meeting the Trust have issued a statement saying that they will be publicly committing to a new honest and transparent relationship with the families whose lives have been affected by maternity failings at the Trust.

Read joint media release from Donna Ockenden and the NUHT Family Group

Read press release from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

‘The death of Wynter Andrews so soon after her birth in 2019 is a tragedy, the effects of which will remain with her parents Sarah and Gary and her little brother Bowie forever. We are already clear from the inquest held in 2020 that Wynter’s death was an avoidable tragedy; put simply it should not have happened.

Since Wynter died Sarah, Gary and their family have campaigned tirelessly for improvements to maternity safety and for better bereavement support for families when a child or baby dies. This will be the legacy that Wynter leaves us all. 

As Chair of the independent review of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust my team and I give our wholehearted commitment to support improvements in maternity services at the Trust and across Nottinghamshire.

 Already, in the early days of our independent review we are aware of the pain and anguish suffered by other families like Sarah and Gary.  We promise them that their voices will be heard and their experiences will make a difference. ‘

I am pleased to announce that today the Independent Review will be launching the Staff Voices initiative. 

In addition to anonymised accounts from those affected by care in the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, the experiences and concerns of staff, both past and present, are absolutely central to our Independent Review. 

That is why today, I am asking any member of staff who worked within or close to Maternity services at NUH that has concerns to come forward and speak to our Review team. Your confidentiality will be respected throughout this process. What you tell us will be kept confidential unless you were to share with us very serious concerns about patient safety or other very significant issues, which would of course have to be escalated appropriately. 

I know that I speak on behalf of all members of my team, when I say that our staff voices initiative will be both professional, and most importantly, a confidential space, in which you can come forward and tell us about any concerns you have. When you engage with my team you will be speaking to review team members who can fully appreciate every aspect of your story, and are able to understand anything you share with them.  So please, if you have information you wish to share, please submit a questionnaire, and we will get in contact with you in the near future.

Within the Staff Voices initiative there is an opportunity to meet (virtually) with members of the Independent Maternity Review team. We hope to be able to speak with a number of current and former staff.

Thank you!

Click here to go to the survey

Download Staff Voices Privacy Notice

Download Staff Voices Interview Protocol

Today, letters will start to be sent out to all families who may have made contact with or joined the CCG commissioned maternity review that stopped its work in June of this year. Families may remember that our Independent Maternity Review started its work on the 1^st September 2022

The letter to families will be sent by the commissioning support unit (‘CSU‘), an organisation that worked alongside the clinical commissioning group (‘CCG‘) in Nottinghamshire. There are two parts to the letter, consisting of a covering letter from the CSU and an introduction to the new review from me, Donna Ockenden, as Chair of the Independent Maternity Review. 

My review team and I feel it is important to give all those families who were part of the initial review the opportunity to join our Independent Review, if this is what they would like to do. 

Read the letter about the first review

Read the letter from Donna Ockenden

Would you like to join our Independent Review?

The letter will explain how to either join or not join the new independent review. 

If you wish to join the independent review, my team and I will make you very welcome. Please be aware that if you do not respond to the letter saying that you wish for your details to be shared, your information would not be shared with the Independent Maternity Review team.

What will our Independent Review do and how can I find out more? 

If you would like more information about our Independent Review, please look at the information, which can be found here. You can also contact our review team on nottsreview@donnaockenden.com

The purpose of our Independent Review is to find out if the trust adequately investigated cases, learnt lessons and whether those lessons have been acted upon. The ultimate aim of our Independent Review is to make sure that the Trust’s maternity service improve. 

Listening to families across Nottinghamshire ensures that ‘family voices’ will be heard and acted upon.  This will remain our focus throughout the Independent Review and, will be reflected in anonymised accounts, in the final published report. 

What should I do next?

Please read the letter from the CSU and let them know what your decision is about whether you wish to join our independent review.  Once your decision has been received,  next steps to sharing your information will begin for those families who choose to join our review. 

Dear Families 

The purpose and the approach of the independent review of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust are outlined in our Terms of Reference (available here). 

Identification of clinical cases for the review will be based on the ‘Open Book’ approach as used in the review of maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.  The Trust will be providing the review team with a large amount of information including cases in the following 5 categories: 

• Term and intrapartum stillbirths
• Neonatal deaths from 24 weeks gestation that occur up to 28 days of life; the review team will also consider neonatal serious incident reports and neonatal never events 
• Babies diagnosed with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (Grade 2 & 3) and other significant hypoxic injury
• Maternal death up to 42 days post-partum
• Severe maternal harm to include cases such as all unexpected  admission to ITU requiring ventilation, major obstetric hemorrhage  e.g. cases where blood loss exceeds 3.5L, peri-partum hysterectomy, and other major surgical procedures arising  from the maternity episode, cases of eclampsia and clinically significant cases of pulmonary embolus requiring further treatment

The review team will contact families to ask for their consent to be involved in the review. The wishes of families, whether to be involved in the review, (or not) will be completely respected by the maternity review team.

We ask all families whose experience falls into one (or more) of the 5 categories above to  please contact us via email: nottsreview@donnaockenden.com 

If your maternity experience is outside of these 5 categories, we will still be able to consider your case, and important learning from your case can be used to improve maternity care at the Trust.  

Please let the review team know about your maternity care by emailing us on maternityexperience@donnaockenden.com

All of your messages will be delivered directly to the review team and will be read carefully.  Your experience will help the review team to build a wide and clear picture of maternity care provision at the Trust.

*Please note that the review team is only able to support with concerns raised in relation to maternity care provided at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust. If you query is regarding a different Trust or is related to a different department at the Trust we will not be able to help. We recommend you contact the relevant Trust directly. 

My team and I will be in touch with you if we have any questions or if we feel we need additional information from you. 

 Thank you very much for your assistance

With best wishes 

Chair 

The Independent review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust

Today, Donna Ockenden and her review team officially open the Independent Review into Maternity Services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Donna and her team are making a public appeal to anyone that has serious or significant concerns about maternity care in the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) to come forward to the review team. This request also applies to staff members, both current and former, who should feel confident in reaching out to the review team.

It is of paramount importance that this review triggers local improvements in care that are both timely and effective, so that local families and staff working in maternity services at NUH can once again feel pride and confidence in the safety of their local maternity services. Donna wishes to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone that has contacted the review team so far – your contact, accounts and information are so important to us and we look forward to working with and for you to improve maternity services in NUH in a timely manner, for families and NUH staff now and in the future.

Today, Donna Ockenden and her review team made contact with all Nottinghamshire MPs and City Councilors in the Nottingham area.  Donna has also contacted a number of community groups. 

Donna believes it is of paramount importance that the Independent review into Maternity Services at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust is comprehensive, leaving no voices unheard, and in order to achieve this, it is essential that Donna and the review team are in contact with as many families and current and former staff in maternity services as possible. 

That is why, today, we are asking a number of representatives  to please urge anyone in their community who has serious concerns about the maternity care that they received at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) to please contact us as soon as possible. Current and former staff at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust NUH can also reach out to the review team in confidence. 

Please note that this review is considering maternity services in Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) only. We will be unable to help if you or your family have concerns about care in another area of the Trust, or in another Trust across England.