Nottingham maternity scandal: New review chair resigns after mounting pressure from families

Families had previously called for NHS England’s newly appointed review chair to decline the offer

A group of 100 families have written to the health secretary to criticise the thematic review of maternity incidents that is currently under way at Nottingham University Hospitals (PA)

The newly appointed chair of a major review into poor maternity care in Nottingham has resigned following mounting pressure from families.

Julie Dent was appointed by the NHS just two weeks ago to lead a review into hundreds of cases of alleged poor care at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

On 7 April, more than 100 families called for Ms Dent to decline the offer after they had previously urged NHS England to appoint Donna Ockenden, who chaired the Shrewsbury and Telford maternity inquiry.

In a letter to families on Wednesday, the chief operating officer of NHS England and NHS Improvement, David Sloman, said: “After careful consideration and further conversations with her family, Julie Dent has, for personal reasons, decided not to proceed as chair of the independent review of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.”

The letter said that NHS England and NHS Improvement would still have “oversight” of the independent review, and that a new review process was being established.

Mr Sloman said he would write to families to inform them of the next stage in the review “shortly”.

The Nottingham independent maternity review was launched in July last year, and since then more than 500 families have come forward, the majority in the last two months.

On 7 April, families wrote to health secretary Sajid Javid asking for Donna Ockenden to chair a new review, saying they had no confidence in the way the review was being carried out.

Ms Ockenden replied to the families’ inital letter, saying she would be happy to chair the review subject to being asked to.

NHS England has since been criticised after it informed families late on 22 April of Ms Dent’s appointment. Families said they were “traumatised” by the way the news was broken to them.

In their response to Ms Dent’s appointment, the families asked for her to decline the offer of the role.

Last week, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt questioned why NHS England had not appointed Ms Ockenden, and said he would be taking the issue up with Mr Javid.

The Nottingham review, called an “independent thematic review”, is being led by local NHS commissioners and NHS England.

It was announced after The Independent and Channel 4 revealed that millions had been paid out by the trust in relation to 30 baby deaths and 46 incidents of babies who had been left permanently brain-damaged while under the care of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.