Lessons from the Shrewsbury maternity scandal must be learnt across the NHS

Editorial: The most fundamental change to the NHS must be increased scrutiny and audit, both at trust level and nationally, in all manner of clinical outcomes

The culture of arrogance and neglect lasted for more than 20 years (Getty)

Words fail in the face of the maternity scandals in Shrewsbury and at too many other NHS trusts. Such institutions are supposed to be safe places for mothers and babies. They are places where parents put their faith in the medical professionals charged with their care. Infants are surely the most vulnerable patients of all. Yet they were subjected to a casual disregard for life and human dignity.

There have been too many betrayals. Women’s voices were ignored, their pleas, even in labour, went unanswered, and lives were lost and destroyed. Clinical professionals sometimes have to make difficult decisions, but the absence of compassion and the conscious habit of proven bad practice shouldn’t be present in modern medicine.

Every one of those betrayals represents a tragedy, and the scale of it – at the Shrewsbury trust alone – is difficult to process. The investigation by Donna Ockenden, a senior midwife, found that more than 200 babies may have died and many others left with life-changing injuries. The detail makes the story all the more vivid and upsetting, as the statistics cover 70 neonatal deaths, 131 cases where babies were stillborn, 29 where babies suffered severe brain injuries and 65 incidents of cerebral palsy.