Shrewsbury maternity scandal: Bereaved dad muted at meeting

An investigation into the former chairman of a failing hospital trust found he made mistakes but they did not amount to serious mismanagement.

It followed a complaint by Richard Stanton and Rhiannon Davies about how they were treated by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).

The report detailed how Mr Stanton had his microphone muted and was spoken over during a meeting with the board.

SaTH apologised to the couple for how it handled their concerns.

The review, by Fiona Scolding KC, was commissioned by SaTH to investigate complaints from Mr Stanton and Ms Davies about the then chair of the trust, Ben Reid.

Mr Stanton and Ms Davies were pivotal in the campaign for an independent review into widespread maternity failings at SaTH after their baby daughter, Kate, died in March 2009 at just six hours old.

Their campaign culminated in the Ockenden Review which concluded catastrophic and repeated failures led to the deaths of more than 200 babies.

Ms Scolding was asked to examine Mr Reid's conduct during his time as chair of the board between February 2018 and August 2020.

It followed a number of complaints from Mr Stanton and Ms Davies including that Mr Reid had failed to take adequate steps to improve patient safety, had behaved in an "aggressive and intimidatory manner" towards them at a meeting and that the trust's representatives had continuously obfuscated the truth.

In her report, she drew on the findings of senior midwife Donna Ockenden and said mistakes had been made and "not everything was handled as it should have been" but this did not amount to serious mismanagement on Mr Reid's part.

"This does not mean that everything he did was right, or not the subject of criticism," she added.

Ms Scolding found that while Mr Reid did take steps to improve patient safety, he had not been "given the relevant information to make a strategic difference".

She said that there was "no doubt" there had been "obfuscations, difficulties and failures" in respect of Kate's death, however she did not consider that Mr Reid "lied" or "acted unethically", adding that he had been ill-advised by others about what was best for the trust.

A board meeting in October 2018, in which Mr Stanton was spoken over and his microphone was switched off, "was not well handled" Ms Scolding said, but did not amount to serious mismanagement.

She concluded Mr Reid had "inherited a Trust which was institutionally defensive about maternity care, and which was seriously dysfunctional" but the responsibility did not lie solely with him.

"I think this report demonstrates some of the fire fighting and dysfunctionality of this Trust and the absolute state they were in, and possibly still are in to this day, on being unable to address any of the issues that were current," said Mr Stanton.

The couple said there was "no appetite" for learning or change at SaTH which they said was "wedded to its toxic culture, embedded from the board to the ward".

The trust's current chair, Dr Catriona McMahon, apologised to Ms Davies and Mr Stanton for their loss "and the way in which the trust dealt with their concerns".

"Our aim in commissioning this independent report was to investigate, transparently, the complaints made against the former chair and we have committed to follow-through with actions to address the issues it highlights," she said.

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