“Racism and marginalisation” at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust meant families “felt pushed out” and resulted in “tragic outcomes”, according to the chair of the inquiry into its maternity services.
Senior midwife Donna Ockenden told HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress that talking to the hospitals’ “wider community” found “significant evidence of racism, marginalisation… ignoring, turning the backs on” people.
“A whole community felt pushed out in the cold,” she said, and families had been confronting a “brick wall” when dealing with the maternity unit.
They met an attitude from staff that “you are not coming in here, we are not listening to you, you can’t be in labour, we know what we are doing, and you don’t,” Ms Ockenden said. “There were a number of really tragic outcomes, with babies being born in the wrong place without the correct equipment.”
Some 2,460 families’ cases are now formally included in the review, and there were a further 520 which could be learned from, she said. There are 850 current and former staff engaged, and Ms Ockenden said she was working closely with current trust leadership. She said several senior doctors had told her team they had raised safety issues at earlier stages.
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Source: HSJ, 22 September 2025
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