An Open Letter To Andy Burnham: We Need A National Public Inquiry Into Maternity Care

In an open letter to Andy Burnham, Greg Almond, Head of our Serious Personal Injury team, calls for a statutory public inquiry into maternity services across England, following the publication of the Ockenden Review and Amos Report.

Download a PDF version of this letter here (682KB).

I am writing to you because few people entering Downing Street will do so with the same direct experience of the pressures, weaknesses and structural challenges facing the National Health Service. Your experience of health policy, institutional accountability and the Public Office (Accountability) Bill will matter in shaping what happens next with maternity care in our country.

My name is Greg Almond. I am a solicitor and Partner at Rothera Bray LLP, a Nottingham law firm.

I am contacting you directly because of your record on institutional accountability, particularly your work on, and support for, the Public Office (Accountability) Bill (“Hillsborough Law”). The same commitment to truth, candour and accountability is now needed in relation to maternity care.

The findings of the Ockenden Review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and the findings in the Amos Report, are extremely serious. Urgent action is needed, but we also need to understand the full extent of the problem.

What’s been uncovered at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust via the largest maternity investigation in NHS history is an incredibly tough read. The Ockenden Review has examined more than a decade of cases at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, including stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal harm and babies left with life changing injuries.

The review demonstrates that these concerns cannot be dismissed as isolated failings.

There remains a serious concern that some of the existing review processes do not always provide the independence, compulsion or transparency required where systemic national failings are alleged.

Many reviews lack the power to compel evidence and depend heavily on voluntary cooperation. In the Ockenden Review, it has been reported that almost half of the 66 senior clinicians approached for comment did not engage, despite being contacted on multiple occasions. That should concern us all, particularly given the importance of the duty of candour.

Without legal requirement, accountability becomes optional and the search for the truth is weakened.

In those circumstances, even well-intentioned national action plans risk becoming little more than paper exercises while the underlying culture remains unchanged.

Piecemeal reports will not fix the problem.

We represent families affected by maternity failings in Nottingham and elsewhere in England. Nottingham is not an isolated case. These are systemic failings across maternity services and they require a national response.

For those reasons, I am asking you to support a full statutory public inquiry into maternity care across England. It should be judge-led, national and independent, with the power to compel witness evidence, require disclosure of relevant documents and examine the root causes of repeated maternity failings across the NHS.

We know the value of public inquiries. I am currently representing survivors of the 2023 Nottingham attacks in the Public Inquiry being held in London.

A national maternity inquiry will affect families across the country. Those seeking answers and accountability should not face barriers because of where they live. If a national maternity inquiry is established, it must be accessible to the families most affected.

Consideration should be given to Nottingham, the Midlands or the North as the venue, so that families throughout the country can engage with the process without unnecessary practical or emotional barriers.

You have championed devolving power from Westminster to communities too often overlooked. This inquiry is for those affected, and it must be accessible, inclusive and meaningful to all who take part.

There is now a real risk that political change will interrupt the progress by families, campaigners and those affected by these failures.

That cannot be allowed to happen.

Families have waited too long for proper accountability, and further delay risks undermining both public confidence and patient safety.

I therefore ask you to support a statutory public inquiry capable of establishing the truth, identifying systemic failings and delivering meaningful accountability and change for affected families.