Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital: Babies and mums died 'amid toxic culture'

Babies and mothers died amid a "toxic" culture at a hospital trust stretching back 40 years, a report has said. The catalogue of maternity care failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust are contained in a report leaked to The Independent.

It reveals that some children were left disabled, staff got the names of some dead babies wrong and, in one case, referred to a child as "it".

The trust apologised and said "a lot" had been done to address concerns.

In 2017, then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced an investigation into avoidable baby deaths at the trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal. It is being led by maternity expert Donna Ockenden, who authored the report for NHS Improvement.

Its initial scope was to examine 23 cases but this has now grown to more than 270 , covering the period from 1979 to the present day. The cases include 22 stillbirths, three deaths during pregnancy, 17 deaths of babies after birth, three deaths of mothers, 47 cases of substandard care and 51 cases of cerebral palsy or brain damage.

The interim report said the number of cases it is now being asked to review "seems to represent a longstanding culture at this trust that is toxic to improvement effort".

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Source: BBC News, 20 November 2019