‘Horrific’ maternity care failings at Nottingham NHS trust prompt calls for public inquiry

Horrific failings led to 520 mothers and babies in Nottingham suffering harm or dying, sparking calls for a public inquiry into maternity care across England.

In all, 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered “potentially avoidable” outcomes, a damning three-year long review of the biggest childbirth scandal in NHS history concluded.

James Murray, the health secretary, said the nature and scale of the failings exposed by Donna Ockenden’s report on maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH) between 2012 and 2025 were “horrific” and “chilling”.

Families suffered “dangerously and tragically deficient care at almost every turn” and “the NHS failed them catastrophically”, said Murray. He was “devastated” and “heartbroken” to read Ockenden’s 401-page account of the “neglect, incompetence, racism, discrimination, contempt and harassment that so many suffered”.

Ockenden, a respected maternity safety expert, painted a stark and detailed picture of maternity care at NUH’s two hospitals, Queen’s medical centre and Nottingham city hospital. “Multiple” women experienced dangerously poor and sometimes “cruel” care there, understaffing was routine, lessons from patient safety incidents were not learned, and bullying by “intimidating cliques” of staff was rife, she found.

The Nottingham Maternity Families group, which represents about 600 harmed and bereaved families, asked Keir Starmer to establish a statutory public inquiry to investigate failings in maternity and neonatal care across the entire NHS “because safe care can only be consistently delivered when the full truth is known”.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 June 2026