Investigation into maternity scandal data delays

An investigation into how personal details were handed over to families involved in the Nottingham maternity scandal has begun.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has confirmed in a letter to the families that it is examining whether Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) responded to requests for information about their care fast enough.

A report published last month found more than 500 mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm or died due to failings at the "toxic" hospital trust.

Sarah Andrews, whose daughter Wynter died in 2019, said she requested relevant records more than two and a half years ago and the process had been "painful".

The ICO oversees data protection regulation and the freedom of information law in the UK along with the regulation of artificial intelligence.

In a letter to the families' campaign group, the body said it had "started an investigation into whether Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has infringed Articles 12 and 15 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 45 of the Data Protection Act (DPA).

"Currently the investigation is looking at the Trust's compliance when handling Subject Access Requests," it said.

Article 12 states an organisation must give information on what it is doing about information requests within a month - or three months in exceptional circumstances - of the initial contact.

Article 15 is the right of the subject to get confirmation about whether personal data is being processed, as well as certain elements of that data.

Section 45 covers similar access rights to personal information and how it is being handled.

The ICO letter also said: "When we open an investigation it means that we are satisfied that the available evidence merits doing so and that the issue is a priority to us."

Gary and Sarah Andrews's daughter Wynter died 23 minutes after she was delivered by Caesarean section on 15 September 2019. Repeated warning signs of her being in distress had been missed.

The couple played a leading role in the campaign which led to the report being published by senior midwife Donna Ockenden in June.

The inquiry - the largest of its kind in NHS history - found leaders at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust knew there were serious issues at its maternity department going back years, but failed to take action.

It also revealed different care may have altered the outcome for 260 babies who died or were harmed.

Sarah Andrews said a group of harmed and bereaved families had contacted the ICO with their concerns.

"It's a relief that it is being investigated because for so long people have had issues with the handling of their data", she said.

"You're bereaved, you're dealing with grief and then you spend years battling with the trust and making complaints.

"I've been fighting for two and a half years and it's been soul destroying.

"It's been failure after failure."

Sarah said there were still "unanswered questions" about hers and Wynter's care at NUH.

Emily Stringer's daughter Caitlin suffered a serious brain injury when she was born four years ago, leaving her partially sighted and unable to walk or talk.

Stringer said waits of up to six months for responses had made a "huge impact".

"We made that request because we had got to the point where we felt we had to be our own investigators to manage the situation and also heal a wound," she said.

"And when parents are in that situation of having to be their own investigators, they really need to be given the tools to do that job, they shouldn't have to be in that position but if they are, they need to be able to do it.

"We found the wait added to our distrust of services and our suspicions about whether there was a cover-up,"

In a statement an ICO spokesperson said: "Subject access request (SAR) is a fundamental right that allows people to know what information organisations hold about them and how it is being used.

"We are aware of current SARs delays at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) and have opened an investigation to review this. As this is a live investigation, we are unable to comment further."

Tracy Pilcher, chief nurse at NUH, said: "We are very sorry that harmed and bereaved families from the Review have had to wait such a significant amount of time to receive their SARs.

"We recognise the impact that this has had on them and accept that this is not good enough.

"We made a commitment at our Extraordinary Board Meeting held on 25 June to look into any information that families are still waiting for and to address their concerns surrounding this. We will be providing them with an update in the coming weeks.

"Last year, we commissioned an urgent review of our Quality Assurance processes and since then there have been improvements in the way our SARs are handled and responded to.

"However, we appreciate that this hasn't been the experience in these cases, and for that we are extremely sorry."

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