Inquiry delay ‘making CEOs look silly’

The lack of information given to trusts likely to be involved in a national maternity investigation due to complete this year is making leaders “look silly” in front of staff, a major trust chief executive has said.

Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust boss Matthew Hopkins told HSJ he wanted clarity over whether his organisation would definitely be involved, as ministers have already suggested, and what this would entail.

Health secretary Wes Streeting announced plans for a national probe into maternity and neonatal services two months ago, with around 10 trusts likely to be covered in the review.

He named MSEFT among the trusts “very likely” to be included.

But, despite plans for the review to be completed by Christmas, this has not yet been formally confirmed, and neither have the full terms of reference for what will be within the investigation’s scope.

Mr Hopkins said: “It’s quite difficult for me when I go and say to the teams, ‘we think we’re involved but we don’t know. We don’t know what the process is going to be’.”

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Source: HSJ, 27 August 2025