Maternity campaigners fear post-Streeting turmoil

A couple who have campaigned for investigations into maternity failings in Nottingham have said the resignation of Health Secretary Wes Streeting is a "real worry".

Dr Jack and Sarah Hawkins, who both used to work for the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust, have been campaigning to expose its failures since their daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016.

Now they are concerned changes in government could disrupt the response to Donna Ockenden's independent report into allegations of harm to mothers and babies, due to be published next month.

Jack Hawkins said: "We spent a lot of time explaining, and being listened to, by Wes Streeting and we don't wish to have to do that again."

Ockenden's inquiry has been investigating stillbirths, neonatal deaths, injured babies and mothers, and maternal deaths at NUH.

The final report is due to be published on 24 June.

The Hawkins said this meant Streeting's resignation had come at a crucial time for their campaign.

Jack Hawkins said: "We are just about to have published the Ockenden report, so a new health secretary for that is a worry.

"And of course we don't know what is going to happen to government, so the new secretary of state that accepts the Ockenden findings - will they be in post in the months and years to come?

"It's a real worry."

The Hawkins said the impact of Ockenden's report into maternity services in Shrewsbury and Telford had been undermined by multiple changes of health minister.

Jack Hawkins said: "Instability is a real concern for us. We want strong knowledgeable leadership.

"We don't want to have to convince another person the culture in maternity services isn't right.

"We've been here before, with multiple secretaries of state, facing an incoherent strategy."

Sarah Hawkins said their campaign had gone beyond Nottingham to across all of England.

"We are now in contact with families from Leeds to Plymouth, bereaved and harmed, and it has demonstrated that babies are dying, mothers are dying and people are being harmed unnecessarily and the longer we leave it, that is going to happen more," she said.

The Hawkins said Streeting had promised to chair a task force on improving maternity care and "left the door open" to a statutory public inquiry - and added his departure put both in doubt.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "The government remains committed to improving maternity safety and the Ockenden review will set out the changes needed to ensure services are safe and equitable for every family.

"The voices of those who have been harmed or bereaved will always be central to this work."

The review, began in September 2022, has grown to involve about 2,500 families and more than 850 members of staff at the trust.

NUH's chief executive Anthony May said earlier this month that the trust would not "breathe a sigh of relief and move on" after the report's publication which was a "watershed moment".

"It is no secret our staff have struggled to provide the service.

"What we have heard is we have made mistakes. We have failed women and families going back many years," he said.

May previously said the trust had improved, but there were further improvements to be made and the findings would be incorporated into the plan.

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