The Patients Association responds to the Ockenden report reviewing maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals

Behind this review are more than 2,500 mothers, fathers, babies and families who experienced care that was unsafe, and in some cases cruel. Their courage in coming forward has produced the largest maternity inquiry in NHS history.

Our thoughts are with every one of those families. No family should have to spend years pursuing acknowledgement and justice after experiencing harm.

The scale of the failings is profoundly concerning. What the review describes goes beyond mistakes, Donna Ockenden found "suppression of information", a refusal by senior figures to cooperate, and repeated failures to investigate and learn. Equally troubling are the findings of racism: women denied interpretation support, having pain dismissed, and experiencing discriminatory treatment. These are not separate from questions of safety. They are failures of equitable care that erode the trust women and families must be able to place in the NHS.

With Baroness Amos's national review due shortly, there is both an opportunity and a responsibility to respond to these findings as part of a wider programme of change. Women and families must be genuine partners in shaping what comes next, not consulted after decisions have already been made.

Rachel Power, Chief Executive, said:

"This review contains accounts that are difficult to read and should be impossible to ignore. Ockenden describes 'a bullying and toxic culture' allowed to persist unchallenged by those with the power to act. Her finding of 'suppression of information' makes clear this was not a failure to notice, but a failure to act or listen.

"The experiences of racism in this review are among its most disturbing findings. No patient should feel their concerns carry less weight because of their ethnicity, language or background. A culture that dismissed women's pain and denied interpretation support did not emerge overnight and it will not be changed by recommendations alone.

"Reviews into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford, East Kent and Morecambe Bay made recommendations intended to improve care. Families are entitled to ask why those lessons were not acted on, and why it took the largest maternity review in NHS history to force the question again.

“The government has committed to setting out its full response to Ockenden's recommendations in September 2026, and Baroness Amos's national review reports next week. Taken together, these represent the most significant opportunity in a generation to transform maternity care across England. That opportunity must not be squandered, and women and families must be at the table when the response is written, not brought in at the end to validate decisions already made."