Ockenden Report – Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

 

 

Here at Attwaters we have been following the progress of the Ockenden Report with much interest. The campaigning by the affected families has been truly inspirational.

The long-awaited report examining the failures of the maternity services provided by Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust has been published today (30 March 2022).

The review into the maternity services was the result of the tireless and brave campaigning of the families impacted by the Trust’s failures.  For those whose babies died or suffered life changing injuries the report may finally provide some answers.

The report notes problems which have spanned for decades including; errors not being investigated appropriately, families not being listened to, along with failures to learn and take remedial actions following mistakes.

Although we are pleased to see the Trust being held accountable, as legal practitioners we know that the report will never be able to fully demonstrate the impact felt by the families.

In our Clinical Negligence team we have experience acting for families whose babies have sadly died or for clients whom have suffered life changing injuries as a result of negligence. On review of the report we regrettably recognised a number of failures that we frequently come across in our practice.

In Clinical Negligence no two claims are ever the same but unfortunately similar breaches of care often arise in maternity settings including; failures to act on CTG trace results, not listening to the concerns of the family and a lack of resources.

These failures can cause devastating consequences and often we are able to evidence that the failure should have never occurred in the first place.  In these circumstances we assist our clients in obtaining compensation to help them get the support and care they need.  With birth injury claims this involves securing appropriate accommodation, care packages and therapies which help our clients live good lives.

With every case we bring we hope that the failures highlighted enable lessons to be learnt and stop the same mistakes impacting a different family.  However, actions must be taken to guarantee this, and we hope that immediate and real measures are now brought so we don’t see a review like this one again.

Attwaters Accidents is the Medical Negligence department of the trusted, long-established firm Attwaters Jameson Hill. We are here to help you with any claims relating to personal injury and medical negligence.