After years of campaigning, bereaved families in Leeds have been told they will get a fully independent inquiry into local maternity services.
The inquiry was announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting who said he was “shocked” that the families faced “repeated maternity failures… made worse by the unacceptable response of the trust”.
Despite running one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust “remains an outlier on perinatal mortality”, according to official data.
In June, the Care Quality Commission downgraded maternity services at the trust to “inadequate”, describing serious risks to women and babies and a deep-rooted “blame culture” that left staff afraid to speak up.
Grieving families have welcomed the launch of the inquiry.
In 2023, an inquest concluded Fiona Winser-Ramm and Daniel Ramm’s first baby, Aliona, died in 2020 as a result of neglect from medical staff.
“When after our daughter died, we were told that they had never seen anything like it before. And we believed it initially,” said Ms Winser-Ramm.
“We believed that we were the first people, the only people that this had ever happened to. And in the depths of our despair and grief, we needed to find other people that understood this, that were the same as us,” she added.
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Mr Ramm said the inquiry had been “a long time coming”.
“We have, as a group of families, spent years trying to essentially expose what the problems have been at least that we’ve known have existed all along,” he said.
Lauren Caulfield’s baby Grace was stillborn in 2022 and an investigation found failings in her care.
“We shouldn’t… as bereaved, grieving parents have to do this [campaigning] for so many years. [It’s] quite a relief to know that, you know, we don’t have to keep fighting,” she said.
Mr Streeting said: “This stark contradiction between scale and safety standards is precisely why I’m taking this exceptional step to order an urgent inquiry in Leeds.
“We have to give the families the honesty and accountability they deserve and end the normalisation of deaths of women and babies in maternity units.
“These are people who, at a moment of great vulnerability, placed their lives and the lives of their unborn children in the hands of others – and instead of being supported and cared for, found themselves victims.”
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Brendan Brown, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “I want to start by offering the families an unreserved apology, not only for their experience, but also for the fight that they’ve had in raising these concerns.
“And I want to assure them of our commitment to engage with the independent inquiry openly, honestly and transparently.”
The families are waiting for the terms of reference of the investigation to be confirmed, but feel the police should be involved.
They also called for it to be chaired by midwife Donna Ockenden, who is heading the independent review of maternity services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Leeds now joins a growing list: Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury, East Kent, and the ongoing Nottingham inquiry, all uncovering shocking failures in maternity care across England.
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