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.

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.

Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary in May, wants anyone who refused to give evidence to Ockenden's inquiry to appear before MPs on the health and social care select committee.

Murray said it was a decision for the chair of the committee to make, not him, but told Kuenssberg: "If the select committee invite them, I think they should say yes."

Murray said: "The week before Donna Ockenden's report was published I spent a day in Nottingham meeting with families, listening to what they had been through, and just the sheer pain they suffered and carried with them to this day.

"It was really numbing; it was traumatic for them to have to relive their experience but for me to hear I felt numb.

"And then someone in the room said: 'Remember, James, this is just a tiny fraction like imagine many, many, people behind us who all have similar pain'.

"That leaves you quite winded really by the sheer scale and depth of what has happened here.

"The fact that senior clinicians refused to take part in Donna Ockenden's review in Nottingham is totally unacceptable.

"I think it is wrong, I cannot understand why they thought that was okay for them to take that choice."

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."

In response to Ockenden's review, the government announced it would be bringing in new measures to boost accountability, including ensuring that NHS staff - past and present - who refuse to engage with upcoming maternity reviews are compelled to give evidence, or face up to two years in prison.

At the time, the Department of Health and Social Care said: "These measures are designed to tackle a culture of silence exposed by the Nottingham review, where over 800 staff gave evidence - but many described a culture of being silenced by senior clinicians and hospital bosses when raising concerns around patient safety."

The government is also looking at introducing the long-awaited Public Office (Accountability) Bill, commonly known as Hillsborough Law, which would ensure greater openness and accountability from public bodies following major incidents.

The bill was due to be passed in April this year - on the 36th anniversary of the disaster - but was paused amid a dispute over a potential opt-out clause for the security services.

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