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Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he will consider calls for a public inquiry into a maternity scandal after pleas for further action from families.
Streeting met families who had lost babies and women under the care of Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust on Thursday.
The trust is at the centre of the largest maternity review in the history of the NHS, led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, which is looking into about 2,500 individual cases.
Streeting said he would “reflect carefully” on issues raised by the families, which included calls for a national public inquiry, and return to the city after he considered “next steps”.
In a statement following the private two-hour meeting, Streeting said he heard “personal and painful accounts” including stories of “dead babies, life-changing injuries” and ongoing trauma.
He said: “It is a meeting that will stay with me for the rest of my life. While my words can’t do justice to what they – and other families across the country – have suffered, actions from government and the NHS can at least try to put right past wrongs.”
Anthony May, the trust’s chief executive, said in a statement he was grateful to Streeting for finding time to meet the affected families.
Sarah, whose son Ryan was left with brain damage due to poor care, said: “I’m here mainly to point out that I reported these failings to the government in 2008 and wasn’t taken seriously. And every other person that came after me should not be after me, because they [NUH] told me the lessons were learned when this happened to Ryan.”
Kim Errington, whose son Teddy was a day old when he died in November 2020, also spoke to the health secretary. An inquest in 2021 heard how midwives failed to monitor Teddy’s blood sugar levels before being sent home.
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