County Durham families support national maternity inquiry

Chantelle Renwick and Kayley Hepple have both had traumatic experiences at the maternity ward of University Hospital of North Durham.

Both mothers received foetuses wrapped in toilet roll rather than the ashes that they expected.

They both said they feel that a national inquiry would help "people going through heart-breaking situations".

The hospital trust has previously apologised to both families for the experiences they went through.

The Maternity Safety Alliance, which is made up of bereaved families, has written to the Health Secretary Steve Barclay asking for an England-wide investigation after a wave of scandals.

It comes after the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which monitors the NHS, said 65 per cent of maternity services are now regarded as inadequate or require improvement for safety.

Both Durham and Darlington maternity services were downgraded to inadequate in the latest CQC report.

Chantelle Renwick, 28, said: "They should be included in the investigation.

"That hospital have no compassion, respect of any emotion for people going through heart-breaking situations.

"It's gut wrenching."

Kayley Hepple, 27, said that she agrees "100 per cent" with the calls for a national inquiry into England's maternity wards.

Peter Gibson, MP for Darlington, said: "I repeatedly hear calls for public inquiries and I have some sympathy with those families who want to see change happen.

"That said, public inquiries are lengthy and costly and in the case of maternity services in County Durham the CQC report has already told us of the failings.

"Our trust can now get on with making the improvements required rather than waiting for more reports to tell us what we already know."

Sue Jacques, chief executive of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are of course very disappointed with the CQC’s rating for our maternity services.

"We take the concerns raised during the inspection extremely seriously and would like to assure all our birthing people and families that we are absolutely committed to providing you with the best care and experience at this special time in your lives.

"We acknowledge that the report makes difficult reading for us, our colleagues and our local communities.

"We recognise the areas for improvement raised by the CQC.

"A lot of work has already taken place to make improvements in the highlighted areas since the inspection in March and we have developed focused action plans to improve safety and efficiency further.

"I’d like to thank our staff, patients and families who took part in this inspection and who continue to support the services.

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"The report summarises the challenges we face with high demand and staffing pressures but also highlights that our colleagues promote a culture that places the patient at the heart of the service and recognises the power of caring relationships between people.

"Every year we help welcome over 4,000 new babies and our teams are committed to providing a safe, compassionate and supported experience to each and every delivery.

"We have updated our website with information for birthing people and families and would encourage you to speak with one of our team if you do have any concerns at this time."

The letter from The Maternity Safety Alliance asks for a full statutory public inquiry into maternity safety in England.

It said: “Over and over again we hear that ‘lessons will be learned’ – and yet those same failings continue. And they don’t just continue in isolated corners of the NHS, they are present to some degree in almost every NHS trust in England, with the most serious kind of avoidable harm occurring everywhere.”