Ockenden Review

Lord Bethell Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Bethell) (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I start by echoing the very thoughtful words of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, and the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, in their reflections on this harrowing report. It does make desperately awful reading. Any noble Lord who took the time to read the report would surely be enormously moved, not just by the story of the cultural and practical problems at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, but also by the personal testimony of Rhiannon Davies—who fought an 11-year campaign after the death of her daughter, Kate—and of Kayleigh Griffiths. They both campaigned stubbornly and with great determination after the deaths of their daughters. They have done a phenomenal thing in bringing this situation to light, and we owe them our compassion and our thanks for their hard work and determination.

We also owe great thanks to Donna Ockenden, who has done a memorable job in terms of this report. It is a massive enterprise that is the result of a huge human investment of time and emotional commitment by Donna and her staff. The report itself is not only huge in scale but great in the humanity with which it deals with this difficult subject. We give great thanks for that.

I reassure both the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, and the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, that we absolutely take this report seriously. It does outline major issues in the culture of many maternity wards. That is a cultural challenge that is both recognised by the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and something that they are working on very well indeed. But I accept that more can be done. In its application, the Government commit not only to implementing the recommendations at trust level but to ensuring that the message made very clearly in the Ockenden report is heard throughout the NHS system.

We are committed to a major investment in the education around midwifery, which includes the rewriting of curriculums, and the Better Births programme, which has already delivered enormous value. There will be a maternity programme review that will update the Better Births programme. There has also been a £9.4 million investment in maternity safety pilots, some of which will be focused on training and some of which will be on safety measures—exactly the kinds of measures that are alluded to in the report.

But the most challenging and, I think, moving element of the report is the stories of the parents themselves and how they were not listened to. This echoes the findings of the report by the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, which, I think, has moved everyone in the House. Time and again we hear the same story, of how those who have witnessed wrong practices and poor culture in the NHS have had to fight the establishment so hard in order to have their voices heard. If any noble Lords heard Rhiannon Davies speak about her own experiences campaigning on this, who would not be moved by that?

We take on board very seriously the recommendations of the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, for a patient safety commissioner. We acknowledge her amendment to the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill, and we look forward to the Report stage of that Bill in the new year.

I would also like to remind noble Lords that all maternity major incidents—certainly neonatal deaths, stillbirths and brain injuries—are now routinely referred to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, which does an independent investigation. This is an important development since many of the incidents reported by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust report. HSIB is doing extremely important work, and I believe that this will be a very large improvement.

Both the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, and the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, raised leadership. I reassure them both that we have put in place much stronger surveillance, both by the regulators—the CQC and others—and by NHS England to keep track of these sorts of incidents, so that we can much more quickly identify weak spots in the area.

On the question of staffing levels brought up by both noble Lords, I reassure them that the recruitment of midwives—3,000 were committed to in 2018—is going apace. We have committed to a major investment in marketing in order to ensure that we hit our targets on that.

The noble Lord, Lord Scriven, asked whether we were committed to change, or whether this report will sit on the shelf and gather dust. I reassure the noble Lord, and all noble Lords, that we are still very much committed to the maternity ambition to halve stillbirths, deaths and injuries between 2010 and 2025. We are already nearly half way there on that ambition, and we will work relentlessly to ensure that it is achieved.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

We now come to the 20 minutes allocated for Back-Bench questions.

[Lord Patel (CB) [V]]

I declare an interest, because I was privileged to work for over 35 years in a maternity unit, with brilliant midwives and doctors—I was a lead obstetrician—to which the events described in this report were totally alien. So we have another report on the failings of maternity services. The root cause of this, as found in previous reports, is the unquestioning practice of regarding all pregnancies as low risk and striving for a natural birth. Does the Minister agree that, for better outcomes for the mother and her unborn baby, society should expect a better working relationship between midwives and obstetricians, while recognising their individual professionalism? This report should be the starting point to making that happen. The Minister mentioned that both Royal Colleges were working together to bring this about. They might be the solution but, if they are not, they will be the ones who are blamed next.

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the insight of the noble Lord, Lord Patel, who brings with him not only expertise as an obstetrician, but deep involvement in the patient safety agenda. I completely agree that collaboration and close working relationships between midwives and obstetricians absolutely benefit the collective care of mothers and babies. When that does not happen, and when agendas other than patient safety come into play—around natural births or what type of person should be present at a birth—it is absolutely to the detriment of the safety of both mother and child. I am absolutely determined that the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists step up to their leadership role in resolving this cultural stand-off. As the noble Lord rightly put it, in almost every maternity centre in the country a fantastic service is provided by clinicians and nurses—but, when that chemistry goes wrong, patients suffer, and we cannot let that happen.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

I do not see the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, in her place, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone.

[Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)]

My Lords, I declare an interest, as set out in the register, as the chair of the trustees of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. As the Minister has admitted, this report makes shocking reading, so what steps will the Government take to monitor the improvements they are pledging for maternity services right across the country to avoid the tragedies that are revealed by this review? Will the Government commit to publishing the findings of any future evaluation and, in particular, data on the avoidable deaths and long-term disabilities that result from failures in the care of women during childbirth?

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, policy officials at the DHSC are working with both the CQC and NHS England on improving our surveillance and the publication of data, as the noble Baroness rightly points out. A key development in this area is the work by HSIB to investigate each and every death and major incident in maternity suites. That provides an absolutely invaluable resource to understand where and when things go wrong. We will continue to publish those reports as they happen and will learn lessons from their insights.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, much of this debate has already focused on the issue of staffing shortages in our NHS, particularly among midwives. I am sure that the Minister is aware of the survey last month from the Royal College of Midwives, which showed that 83% of midwives did not believe that their trust or board had enough staff to provide a safe service and 42% said that half or more of their shifts were understaffed. The Minister referred to recruitment campaigns and investment in future training, but the Ockenden review calls for an immediate focus on relationship building, training and things that will take a great deal of time and resources to deliver, where there are problems. I cannot see any alternative if we are to fill some of those gaps immediately. Training will take many years, but an overseas recruitment of midwives will bring in the staff we need to create the space to allow people to have that training—that time and reflection.

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I respectfully disagree with the noble Baroness’s insight—the Ockenden review does not point the finger at staffing levels in relation to the problems; it points the finger at a number of items, particularly the cultural problems that emerge when differences of opinion between clinicians and midwives arise and where a culture of respect breaks down. Those cultural differences can be improved by what we would politely call education; it is essential that we invest in the right kind of education in order to bring midwives, obstetricians and gynaecologists closer together and to break down the hierarchical differences and the ideological differences about the best way to have a baby.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, as a Secretary of State responsible for the health service for some of this period—two years out of two decades—I share in the responsibility for what happened here and for the fact that it was not known about and that action was not taken sooner. I am sure that others who have been Ministers in the department over these two decades will feel likewise.

What is shocking is not only the individual trauma that parents have suffered but the scale of what the Ockenden review discloses—we are grateful to Donna Ockenden and her colleagues for persisting in trying to understand and disclose the scale of what has happened. I ask my noble friend about our responsibility, which was, of course, that there should be external oversight and action taken when these things go wrong. From my point of view, one of my objectives was that there should be more clinically led commissioning so that local clinicians would understand what was happening and have the power to step in.

The Ockenden report shows that, in May 2013, the clinical commissioning groups set up a review that, in October 2013, reported:

“The overall findings of the review demonstrate that this is a safe and a good quality service”.


I encourage Donna Ockenden and the department to look very carefully at how they could ensure that local clinicians responsible for commissioning take that responsibility seriously and act upon it.

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

On behalf of the Chamber, I thank my noble friend for his touching testimony. He is entirely right; there are two CCGs in the local area: the Telford and Wrekin CCG and the Shropshire CCG. They did exactly what they should have done in 2013, launching an investigation into the levels of service at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. It is not clear why the findings of that report turned out as they did; nor is it clear why other interventions, or potential interventions, by the CQC and other regulators did not get to the bottom of the problem. Those questions will be addressed in the second of Donna Ockenden’s reports, in 2021; there has not been time for them all to be addressed in the interim report, but there is much more to go into, and this is undoubtedly one of the important points she will need to address.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the GMC board. Nothing can excuse the repeated failures and the lack of compassion and kindness exposed by the review. What is so striking is the paragraph in the report that refers to the eight chief executives working in the trust over a period of 10 years and 10 chairs over 20 years —no wonder there is a leadership and governance issue in the trust. I ask the Minister: what on earth have NHS England, NHS Improvement and the CQC been doing? It seems that their interventions, which I suspect have been punitive in nature, have not provided the kind of support that is needed.

Does the Minister agree that we need a wholly new approach to this trust, which gives it high-level attention and provides stability in leadership—not a constant turnover because of an intervention by one or other of the many regulators that can do this—and above all, support from neighbouring services that can provide help? I suspect that this trust needs an awful lot of help to get out of this terrible situation.

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I completely take on board the noble Lord’s observations. It is true that Donna Ockenden’s report alludes to the failure by senior leadership to monitor and intervene where clearly there were problems. However, let us not confuse correlation with causation. This was not caused by a failure of senior leadership, but by a breakdown in the basic management systems and culture of the maternity services within the trust. That should have been addressed by the senior leadership, but it was not necessarily caused by them. I completely endorse the observation of the noble Lord that neighbouring trusts have an important role to play in checking in and benchmarking behaviours. That is a point made very clearly in the Ockenden report, and one that I hope they will step up to.

[Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl) [V]]

I salute the courage of the parents of Kate Stanton Davies, Pippa Griffiths and so many others in their tenacious personal search for truth and justice. Donna Ockenden’s report was harrowing reading. The pain, trauma and inhuman disregard for the safety of baby and mother was palpable, profoundly damaging confidence and trust in maternity services. It made me relive my own decade-long failed attempt to seek information on whether my lengthy abandonment on a bed overnight after 48 hours of labour pain has anything to do with my now 42 year-old son’s brain damage and lifelong disabilities. I was dismissed constantly, admonished for “being an Asian mother too ashamed to have given birth to a disabled child”, which is far from the truth about a much-loved son.

Sadly, I was not alone, as the Ockenden report details. It has been repeatedly confirmed by so many others and by the first maternity advocacy scheme, which was set up in the 1980s to address the high postnatal mortality rate of mothers and babies among Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Somalian, Vietnamese and African women, whose maternity experiences, even today, remain inconsistent and patchy. Therefore, can I ask the Minister what consideration can and will be given to historic grievances in any future review of maternity services, given what the right honourable Jeremy Hunt in the other place, and Donna Ockenden, have said about the experience of mothers and babies highlighted being only the beginning of unearthing potential malpractice across England?

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

I join others in paying tribute to the personal testimony of the noble Baroness. The story that she tells is extremely moving. One cannot think about the challenges and difficulties that she must have had since that awful night, which she so movingly describes. The report makes it clear that those with a BAME background have disproportionately high rates of difficulty at birth and in maternity services, something which undoubtedly we need to look at more carefully. However, the Ockenden report is not a historic grievances report, and that will not be the focus of our response.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

Lord Mann? No? We will move on to the noble Baroness, Lady Stuart of Edgbaston.

[Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, this is the second time in six months that this House has been exposed to quite harrowing tales of patients’ experiences in the NHS. I am glad that the Minister mentioned the report by the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, and her call for a patient safety commissioner. Both the Ockenden and the Cumberlege report identified a problem with the culture in the NHS. We cannot go on having review after review. While it is important to listen to the patients’ experiences as part of putting things right, we must learn comprehensive lessons. Will the Minister therefore say just a little more as to how he intends to take the idea of the patient safety commissioner forward, and in particular how that patient safety commissioner will be independent of and not part of the NHS?

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it would be premature of me to describe in too much detail how any patient commissioner may work, since we are half way through the Bill’s progress. But I would like to reflect on the very good arguments made by my noble friend Lady Cumberlege and her supporters during the Bill’s passage at Second Reading, in Committee and in the amendment-moving process. She has made very convincing arguments for how a patient safety commissioner can be an ultimate destination for those who have not found due process and a sympathetic ear elsewhere in the consideration of their grievances. It is entirely right that any commissioner, whether a victims’ commissioner or any other kind, should feel a strong sense of independence; that is a total benefit that we endorse in the provision of any commissioner. But commissioners are not enough; what we need is a change in culture. That is why Aidan Fowler, the DCMO looking at this, works so hard and why we have a patient safety agenda that works to address this at every level of hospital trusts.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

All speakers have now been called, so we move to the next business without a break.