Trust response to Ockenden report
30 March 2022
Mitra Bakhtiari, West Herts’ director of midwifery, has issued a statement in response to the publication today (30 March 2022) of the Ockenden report into maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust.
"Today is a sad day but it is also a day from which we can go forward with even greater confidence in our maternity care.
"The trust is committed to implementing recommendations in the Ockenden report and progress with this will be shared in our public board papers. We have already been making great strides with the Ockenden 2020 report, as well as other national initiatives to improve maternity care*.
"We will study the latest Ockenden report in great detail and use this along with a recent boost in recruitment, advanced plans for a brand new building and some important maintenance work to reclaim our maternity service’s previous Care Quality Commission rating of ‘good’.
"The biggest lesson from the report is how dangerous it is to have a blame culture where staff are scared to speak up or do not engage with patients when things have gone wrong. It’s easy to look at our buildings and find fault but I am pleased to reassure local people that as far as our culture in maternity is concerned, we want to face up to mistakes and learn from them. This is how lives are saved.
"Whilst we are not complacent, it was good to see that the CQC praised our safety culture in their report following their inspection in October 2021. Inspectors noted how committed staff were to learn from incidents.
We are also open to criticism and are always looking for ways to improve, and this goes far beyond our plans for a new building. Our work with the Maternity Voices Partnership provides a great opportunity to listen to and act on feedback with women and their families who have had experience of our maternity service.
"We have also been doing great things with Royal Free London developing a clinical practice group pathways programme. From this work, we have implemented the NICE guidance on induction of labour guidelines, which were developed with patient involvement.
"We recognise that the publication of today’s report may have caused distress to women and their families who, for whatever reason, experienced difficulties related to their pregnancy. We are here for them, either to hear how we could have done things better or to help them access support. If you have been affected in any way by today’s publication, please call our patient advice and liaison service (PALS) on 01923 217198 who will help."
*Our March 2022 board paper on progress with implementing the Ockenden report (2020) can be found here (item 18)