Health secretary seeks advice over maternity inquiry staff who refused to give evidence

The health secretary has said he is seeking advice on whether senior clinicians who did not give evidence to the Ockenden Review can be forced to do so under a proposed new law.

James Murray said it was “totally unacceptable” that some senior staff refused to take part in the inquiry into maternity services at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Murray said that as part of the Hillsborough Law, a duty of candour would be applied to future maternity investigations and that he was seeking advice as to whether the law could be applied retrospectively.

Murray said he felt “numb” after hearing from families affected by the scandal.

Jack Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn at Nottingham City Hospital in 2016 after a catalogue of failings, said: “Having these people forced to attend the health and social care committee would be an interesting day but we suspect meaningless for accountability and safe maternity care.”

The maternity review into NUH, published in June, was the largest of its kind in NHS history.

Led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, the inquiry found there were “potentially avoidable” outcomes for mothers and babies in 520 cases and “deeply embedded systemic failures” at maternity units in Nottingham.

About 2,500 families and more than 800 members of NUH staff – past and present – contributed to the review, which began in 2022.

But when presenting the findings in Nottingham in June, Ockenden admitted there were “gaps” in knowledge because some senior managers had declined to take part.

The report said 66 former and current senior colleagues were approached by the chief executive of the trust, Anthony May, of which 37 came forward and 35 were interviewed as part of Ockenden’s review.

May told the BBC that the senior executives currently working for NUH had engaged with the review.