Yesterday, the incredible Donna Ockenden appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs…a powerful and moving episode that celebrated her extraordinary life, and her tireless work to improve maternity services.  

While the programme rightly focused on Donna, it did touch on her landmark review into the maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH), which was published three years ago this month.

After Richard, Kayleigh, Colin and I put forward the original 23 cases to the Department of Health in 2016, to demonstrate why an inquiry was needed, she and her team worked tirelessly to uncover what was at the root of the appalling failings. Their work identified more than 200 babies and nine mothers had died avoidably, and hundreds of other infants and mums were left with life-changing injuries because of the catastrophic failings at the Trust.  

Donna spoke with sadness about what was hardest for her to bear when she was working with the SaTH families; it was not just the avoidable deaths of babies and mothers, but the devastating way grieving families were treated after their lives had been shattered by the failings in care.  The lies.  How parents were blamed for their own losses.  How the dead were blamed for their own deaths.  How staff acted in isolation, without oversight, accountability or compassion.

The heartbreaking and unforgivable themes she unearthed at SaTH overlap with Michael Buchanan’s devastating new BBC investigation into the avoidable death of Ida Lock in 2019 at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.  In his article, he details the shocking mistreatment of Ida’s family after she died - a story far too familiar to too many bereaved parents.  And crucially, he wonders whether a national inquiry into maternity care is now required.  He references our petition: “There are now calls for the government to establish a national maternity inquiry, rather than relying on individual ones at different hospitals and trusts…More than 36,000 people have signed up to one such petition, led by two sets of bereaved parents…”

Following national media coverage of our call for a 4 nation inquiry from Channel 4 News and Victoria MacDonald in 2023, this is another leading journalist who has come to the same conclusion.  But when will the Department of Health heed what is being said?

In further news this week – we’re awaiting the outcome of the Preliminary Hearing in the Leeds Employment Tribunal into the case of Dr Max McLean, an extraordinary and brave whistleblower who tried to speak out about unsafe maternity care when he was the Chair at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  

Instead of being listened to, he was forced to resign and was subjected to deliberate, repeated lies from his Trust; lies shared with national media and colleagues to humiliate and silence him.

We truly hope the Tribunal will support Max’s claim and thus pave the way for others to be protected when they speak out about failings in NHS care.

As Michael Buchanan’s article makes clear, we are past the point of yet more fragmented inquiries.  Even maternity experts like Dr Bill Kirkup and Prof James Walker agree, and in response to information in Michael’s article that: "Families in several areas, including Sussex, Leeds and Oxford, want local investigations into their maternity services…” they advise: “Another [local] inquiry will find exactly the same things… What is needed is a national plan to improve maternity care.”

So why, then, are the people who have mapped out that path - the bereaved parents who wrote this petition - not at the table?  Within petition updates we have already detailed what a four-nation inquiry and a programme for system-wide change should look like.  We’ve brought families, whistleblowers, and professionals together.  Yet still, the Department of Health has not committed to a national inquiry, or to working in true partnership with those most affected.  

After our meeting with Wes Streeting in December, the promised follow up hasn’t been forthcoming.

Maybe what we need now is not JUST a plan - but real leadership to ensure maternity services change for the better, forever and in all four nations.  Leaders like Max McLean and Donna Ockenden.  Leaders who challenge the status quo, ask the hard questions, and speak for those who no longer can.

Thank you for standing with us.  Please keep sharing the petition, and if you haven’t already, take a moment to

• Listen to Donna’s Desert Island Discs appearance
• Read Michael's in depth article
• And follow Max’s fight

The time for isolated inquiries is over.
The time for joined-up, compassionate, courageous action is now.

Yours,

Rhiannon, Richard, Kayleigh and Colin, the authors of the National Maternity Inquiry Petition (aka two bereaved families who refuse to stop pushing for change).