The NHS needs a culture change to deliver safer care

The avoidable deaths of babies and mothers in Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust’s maternity services are heartbreaking. What makes them a scandal, however, is that the problems have been known about for so long, and yet the instinct of managers was to deflect and minimise. 

The Healthcare Commission, a forerunner to the Care Quality Commission, was concerned about injuries to babies in the trust’s maternity units as long ago as 2007. It was not until Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton insisted on answers about the death of their baby Kate in 2009 that the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman concluded in 2013 that it had been the result of serious failings in care. 

Trusts need to ensure lessons stemming from failings are being implemented while patients and their families are being treated with respect and as a valuable source of feedback.

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Source: The Independent, 20 November 2019