Independent review of Sussex maternity services begins in the UK
An independent review of maternity and neonatal services in Sussex has begun in the United Kingdom. Bereaved families and parents who lost children while receiving medical care will be able to give evidence as part of the review. The review is chaired by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, The Guardian reports.
A public meeting marking the start of the review was held in Brighton. It followed months of campaigning by families who lost children. In February, a joint investigation by the New Statesman and the BBC reported that the deaths of at least 55 babies could have been prevented if they and their mothers had received better care at University Hospitals Sussex.
More than a thousand cases
The review is expected to cover more than 1,000 cases related to maternity and neonatal care dating back to 2018. Donna Ockenden previously led a major review of maternity care in Shrewsbury and Telford, as well as a review of services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. She is currently also chairing a review of maternity and neonatal services at two hospitals in Leeds.
Ockenden said her priority would be to listen carefully to affected families and bereaved families, as well as engage with Sussex communities and healthcare workers. According to her, the review team will actively reach out to families whose voices are usually not heard. She stressed that the scope of the review must reflect families' experiences and allow the care provided to be thoroughly examined.
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Susan Cacciacarro's story
Among those planning to give evidence is Susan Cacciacarro. In 2021, when she was nearly 37 weeks pregnant, she stopped feeling her daughter Chiara move. During a scan at 20 weeks, the child was found to have a hole in her heart, so the pregnancy was classified as high-risk and fetal growth was regularly monitored at the hospital.
According to Cacciacarro, a scan at 34 weeks showed that Chiara had lost weight over the previous two weeks. At the same time, staff at the maternity unit of the hospital in Worthing did not draw up a plan to bring forward the delivery scheduled for 39 weeks. When the woman went to hospital after she stopped feeling the baby move, doctors were unable to detect a heartbeat. Chiara was stillborn.
Cacciacarro, who now has two children, said families need accountability, transparency and safer maternity services so that other families do not go through something similar. Activists from the Truth for Our Babies group are calling on other affected families to take part in the review.
University Hospitals Sussex chief executive Andy Heaps said the trust would support the process so that families could receive the answers they need. He also said maternity teams had already introduced a number of changes and would cooperate with the review to further improve the safety of care for mothers and babies.
