More than 500 mothers and babies died or were harmed at ‘toxic’ Nottingham NHS trust, report finds

Donna Ockenden inquiry finds ‘bullying’ culture and ‘cruel’ and dismissive attitude to women contributed to avoidable deaths

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More than 500 mothers and babies came to harm or died as a result of inadequate care in Nottingham, an inquiry into the NHS’s biggest ever maternity scandal has revealed.

A total of 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered “potentially avoidable” outcomes because they received substandard treatment over 13 years from Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH), a damning report led by the childbirth expert Donna Ockenden has found.

A “bullying and toxic culture” persisted at NUH over many years and impeded moves to improve care.

Maternity service managers and the trust’s senior leaders were repeatedly warned about a host of serious problems in the maternity units at both hospitals but did not take effective action.

Maternity staff displayed “a culture of not admitting women who were seeking admission in labour”, despite the risks this posed to them and their babies.

Both maternity units were consistently seriously short-staffed and could not cope with the number of births and complexity of cases they had to handle.

One baby girl who died early in gestation was “inadvertently disposed of as clinical waste by laboratory staff after her postmortem examination”, compounding her parents’ distress.