UK health bosses must face MPs over maternity scandal, says former minister

Former health secretary Wes Streeting is demanding that senior staff who refused to cooperate with a major NHS maternity scandal inquiry face Parliament. The review of Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust revealed that hundreds of babies and mothers experienced avoidable harm.

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Their cowardice is an insult to the Nottingham families.

Donna Ockenden's review found that 66 former and current senior NUH colleagues were approached, but only 35 were interviewed. Streeting described the refusal of the remaining staff to participate as "cowardice" and "an insult" to the affected families. He is urging the chair of the health and social care select committee to summon these individuals to explain their actions.

In a letter to committee chair Layla Moran, Streeting stated that the "cover-up culture in the NHS must be brought to an end." He emphasized that those in power must be held accountable, even if it requires the threat of contempt of Parliament. Select committees have the authority to compel witnesses within the UK to attend and answer questions.

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Having sat and listened to those parents recount their harrowing experiences, of harm and bereavement, I find it simply unconscionable that people who worked for the NHS would deny them an honest account of what went wrong and why.

The Ockenden report, which began in 2022, involved approximately 2,500 families and over 800 current and former NUH staff. Ockenden herself noted "gaps" in the review's findings due to the non-cooperation of some senior managers. The report also indicated that different care might have altered the outcome for 260 babies who died or were harmed. One case highlighted involved Harriet Hawkins, who was stillborn in 2016 due to delayed intervention, a situation compounded by what the review called a "systemic cover-up and investigations designed to mislead."

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This is indicative of a cover-up culture in the NHS that must be brought to an end.

Jack Hawkins, Harriet's father and a former consultant doctor at the trust, expressed concern that parliamentary hearings could interfere with an ongoing police investigation into the maternity failings. He questioned whether Streeting had consulted with Nottinghamshire Police regarding the potential impact of such proceedings.

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If the threat of being held in contempt of Parliament is necessary to force those in positions of power to be accountable, then so be it.