A major independent inquiry into maternity care in England has opened, this time turning its attention to a large hospital trust in Leeds. According to the reporting, the senior midwife Donna Ockenden has launched her inquiry into maternity failings at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, beginning the work with a series of meetings with families affected by the care they received.
The first day of the process was built around listening to those families directly. According to the reporting, hundreds of families were expected to attend what was described as the first of many meetings in the heart of Leeds. Organisers framed it as an open invitation, encouraging anyone who had been affected by their maternity or neonatal treatment at the trust to come forward and take part.
The new review does not stand alone but follows a high-profile examination of failings elsewhere. According to the reporting, the Leeds inquiry comes after Ockenden's report into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, an investigation that found systemic failures in which both mothers and babies were let down. That earlier work has become a reference point for families now raising concerns in Leeds.
For many of those gathering in the city, the fear is that Leeds could become the next case in a wider national pattern. According to the reporting, families who came together in Leeds city centre said they believed they could be at the centre of England's next maternity scandal, this time involving Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, as they sought answers about what had happened to them.
The accounts emerging from the families echoed those heard in other parts of the country. According to the reporting, bereaved parents who spoke about their experiences described themes that were very familiar from maternity failings elsewhere, with a recurring sense that the care they expected had fallen short at a critical time in their lives.
One mother's account underlined why so many are seeking a formal reckoning. According to the reporting, a bereaved mother said that she had not been listened to, having raised a complaint of pain over the course of an entire week without her concerns being properly addressed, an experience she wanted the inquiry to examine.
Ockenden, who is leading the review, sought to reassure those taking part that they would shape its direction. According to the reporting, she said the families would be at the heart of her investigation and pledged that the voices of families and of front-line staff would be heard, listened to, amplified and acted upon, as the first of many meetings in Leeds got under way.
The Leeds work is the latest in a long line of maternity reviews led by the same midwife. According to the reporting, over the past decade Ockenden has brought families together first in Shrewsbury and Telford, then in Nottingham, and more recently in Sussex, to hear their birthing stories, with Leeds now added to that list. In each case she has examined whether standards of care led to the deaths of babies and their mothers.
The trust at the centre of the Leeds review said it was committed to working openly, honestly and transparently with Ockenden, adding that significant improvements were already under way while acknowledging that much more remained to be done. At a national level, according to the reporting, the government said it was creating 1,000 new temporary midwife posts to ease pressure on services and had committed 41 million pounds to upgrade dilapidated facilities.
For many of the parents involved, however, the review is not seen as the final answer. According to the reporting, a lot of the families want a full public inquiry, and are urging the incoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who previously served as health secretary, to sanction one. They argue that only a public inquiry would compel clinicians to give evidence, and that only then would they see real change in maternity services in England.