After years of campaigning, bereaved families in Leeds have been told they will get a fully independent inquiry into local maternity services.
The inquiry was announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting who said he was "shocked" that the families faced "repeated maternity failures... made worse by the unacceptable response of the trust".
Despite running one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust "remains an outlier on perinatal mortality", according to official data.
In June, the Care Quality Commission downgraded maternity services at the trust to "inadequate", describing serious risks to women and babies and a deep-rooted "blame culture" that left staff afraid to speak up.
Grieving families have welcomed the launch of the inquiry.
In 2023, an inquest concluded Fiona Winser-Ramm and Daniel Ramm's first baby, Aliona, died in 2020 as a result of neglect from medical staff.
Mr Ramm said the inquiry had been "a long time coming".
"We have, as a group of families, spent years trying to essentially expose what the problems have been at least that we've known have existed all along," he said.
Source: Sky News, 20 October 2025
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