Hundreds of mothers and babies died or were harmed at ‘toxic’ hospital trust – The Latest
episodePreviously titled “Hundreds of mothers and babies died or harmed at ‘toxic’ hospital trust – The Latest” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What shocking findings were revealed in the maternity investigation?
This is The Guardian.
Unprecedented, it's the largest maternity investigation in NHS history. What was found was completely shocking and damning. Mothers being dismissed, being denied pain relief. There were babies who were starved of oxygen.
When your kid dies via NHS negligence, hardly anyone wants to talk about it. And I really want to change that. Sadly, it is very common.
For over a decade, a lot of these inadequacies and failures were known. However, they were kind of swept under the carpet. People higher up in the staff just didn't want to deal with the fallout of what this could have been.
From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoth. The findings into Britain's worst ever maternity scandal have been published today. A report into Nottingham University Hospital's NHS Trust, two hospitals under that trust. It's hard to overstate, I think, how shocking the findings are. There were more than 500 babies or mothers who died or were harmed by inadequate care. As our UK health and inequalities correspondent, Toby Thomas, you've been right across this, you've been reporting into this for some time. Let's start on the medical inadequacies or poor care that mothers and babies received.
Yeah, so this review has been highly anticipated. And I think, you know, the damning findings were kind of expected. This has been in the pipeline for a long time. Donna Ockenden, who led the report, she'd interviewed over 2500 families and 850 former staff members and current staff members at the Trust. Which is unprecedented in scale. Yeah, unprecedented. It's the largest maternity investigation in NHS history. And what was found was, you know, completely shocking and damning. Ockenden found that there were systemic deep rooted issues at the trust. This kind of ranged from both the workplace culture with staff shortages. The workplace culture was also described as being toxic. but also in terms of the care that mothers and babies received.
There were many examples of mothers being dismissed, being laughed at, being denied pain relief when expressing they were uncomfortable and in pain. There were babies who were starved of oxygen. There was a particularly shocking example where a stillborn baby was disposed of as clinical waste by accident by staff. So it's not even just, you know, the care mothers and babies receive during labour, but also in the unfortunate circumstance, if they were stillborn, then even, you know, the post-death care was also inadequate there too.
That is absolutely horrifying. And I think one of the things, looking through the review before our conversation, is that mothers felt that they were repeatedly being ignored, dismissed, not listened to, that they had valid concerns about, that weren't being adhered to and that those were underreported. There was an issue of staff not noticing signs of potential harm or complications.
Yeah, no, exactly that. But it also plays in both ways that, you know, in instances where staff were aware of these complications and And they were reported like, you know, the more senior people on the trust didn't take action. One thing the report really highlighted was that for over a decade, a lot of these inadequacies and failures were known. However, they were kind of swept under the carpet or turned a blind eye to because people higher up in the staff just didn't want to deal with the fallout of what this could have been. And I think, you know, It wasn't a surprise just how systemic these failures were. This is something families have been talking about for years, even before Ockenden launched her formal review.
However, I think what this review really adds to is just the kind of really in-your-face examples of just how grotesque some of the care was that these mothers and babies did receive. For example, there was one mother who spoke to Ockenden's review, who said that, you know, her partner was told to cover her mouth during labour. There was another one who said that she felt she was sneered at when asked for pain relief.
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