Shropshire baby deaths: Trust says changes are ahead of schedule

SaTH, which runs The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal in Telford, is currently in special measures

A struggling hospital trust said improvements are ahead of schedule after catastrophic failures were found in its maternity services.

A report by Donna Ockenden into the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) found 201 babies died due to failing standards of care.

It made 15 recommendations and detailed 210 actions for the trust to deliver.

At a board meeting on Thursday, the director of nursing said improvements were "above trajectory".

A report prepared ahead of the board meeting said by May 2023 SaTH ought to have implemented 113 of the actions and it had managed to evidence 148 actions had been delivered.

A further 24 actions were said to be "delivered, not yet evidenced" and 38 were "not yet delivered".

The Ockenden inquiry was set up following a campaign by parents

The Ockenden report, published in March 2022, examined maternity practices at SaTH over 20 years and found the failures there also contributed to the deaths of nine mothers and left other infants with life-changing injuries.

It also uncovered a "toxic culture" at the trust and since then SaTH has been working to improve services.

• Catastrophic failures led to mother and baby deaths

• Baby scandal: The mothers who died

• Progress but more to do at maternity scandal trust

Hayley Flavell, executive director of nursing, presented the progress report to the board and said that they were "above trajectory which is really positive".

The board also heard that there were currently no staff vacancies in the trust's maternity services.