East Midlands families in call for UK maternity review

Sarah and Jack Hawkins are among the parents seeking accountability after their daughter Harriet died

Families in the East Midlands whose children died in the care of the NHS have joined the call for a national maternity inquiry.

The death of Sarah and Jack Hawkins' daughter Harriet was among the cases which prompted Donna Ockenden's review of maternity in Nottingham.

But the Hawkins' and other bereaved parents said they had seen the same mistakes repeated across the country.

The parents have now formed their own group to call for a national review.

The group, called the Maternity Safety Alliance, has written to Health Secretary Steve Barclay to call for the review, and has asked members of the public to pledge support to their campaign.

Mr Hawkins said: "We have had repeated inquiries and it's the same issues that keep on coming up.

"There is a fundamental problem with maternity services in this country.

"We need to understand it. At the moment it feels like you can cause horrific damage to someone's family and it doesn't really register, it doesn't matter."

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has apologised to Mr and Mrs Hawkins for its failings

Mrs Hawkins added: "We are contacted by a lot of families and it's not just this area, it's widespread devastation.

"What really needs to happen is a national inquiry to look at where it's gone wrong.

"And that needs to be done throughout the whole country, not just one area, so everyone who goes in with a healthy baby alive comes out with a baby for the nursery, not having an empty nursery or car seat."

Meanwhile, hospitals in Leicester have been among the most recent maternity services to have failings identified following a report in September.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) revealed a "deterioration in the level of care" being provided to those using maternity services at Leicester General Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Preeti and Hrushikesh Joshi, parents of Ansh Joshi, who died two days after he was born, have joined the call for an external review into maternity services, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Mr and Mrs Joshi's son died at Leicester Royal Infirmary

They told the LDRS that no parent "should ever have to feel the grief and trauma" of coming home with their baby's ashes in an urn, rather than their baby in their arms.

The Department of Health and Social Care has said the government has "invested £165 million a year since 2021 to grow the maternity workforce and improve neonatal services".

The Maternity Safety Alliance said the latest NHS figures showed that in 2022/23 the total paid out for clinical negligence in maternity care was £2.6bn, and the total estimated cost of claims expected to be received is £4.2bn, which works out at £11.5m every day.

It added that the same failings in care were found in reviews of maternity services in Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent, and that it expects the same conclusions from the ongoing review at Nottingham.

There are also calls for another unit level inquiry into maternity services at Leicester after the services in the city's hospitals were rated inadequate following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year.