Families call to meet PM over maternity failings

Parents involved in an independent review into Nottingham's maternity services say they want to meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to talk about the failings in care across the NHS.

On Monday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced a "rapid" investigation into maternity care in England.

Sarah and Jack Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016 following maternity failings at Nottingham City Hospital, are calling for more action in the form of a statutory public inquiry.

Earlier this year Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust - which is at the centre of the largest ever review into NHS failings - was given a record £1.6m fine over failings around the deaths of three babies.

Dr Hawkins said similar reviews into NHS failings had taken place and not achieved the results families had wanted, which is why he has backed calls for a national judge-led public inquiry.

"I think we're very clear that it's been tried before in various subtly different ways, and it will not work," he said.

"What we absolutely have to have is a statutory public inquiry, where people give evidence under oath, and are at risk of perjury in a court, just like the Post Office inquiry.

"There are thousands and thousands of avoidably dead babies and children in this country, in a system run by the state."

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Source: BBC News, 24 June 2025