SaTH paid £1m for providing 'good maternity care' weeks before inadequate inspection

The NHS Trust at the centre of the country’s largest inquiry into baby deaths was paid almost £1 million for providing ‘good maternity care’, the BBC has revealed.

Maternity Incentive Scheme

According to recent news, Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH) received £953,391 GBP under the Maternity Incentive Scheme run by NHS Resolution (the legal arm of NHS trusts in England), which aims to improve maternity care.

In order to qualify for the funds under the incentive scheme, the board of a trust had to certify certify it met 10 separate maternity safety standards - including reducing errors, workforce development and acting on the concerns of patients.

However, it has since come to light that NHS Resolution did not ensure each trust had met its requirements.

Of the 132 trusts that participated in the scheme, a total of 75 certified that they had scored a perfect 10 and therefor eligible to receive a full refund of their own contribution, as well as a portion of the money paid by those trusts that had not scored 10.

SaTh self-certified that it met all ten safety standards and received just under £1 million for providing 'good maternity care' in September. Yet just weeks later, inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the trust, including its maternity care as inadequate, with inspectors forced to take enforcement action to ensure care was immediately improved. It has also emerged that since 2006/7, 82 claims for damages relating to maternity errors against the trust have been successful - costing the NHS almost £50 million. Over half of this amount was paid out to families of babies who had developed cerebral palsy due to maternity errors.

SaTH said that evidence of its progress against the maternity safety actions were shared with committees prior to being submitted to its own board. In a statement, the trust said: "Evidence of the trust's progress against the 10 safety actions was shared with committees including the Women and Children's Care Group Board and the Quality and Safety Assurance Committee, before being submitted to the trust board.

"The content of the report was also shared with the trust's commissioners."

NHS Resolution has said it was “unable to comment on specific trust cases”.

Baby deaths at Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust

Jeremy Hunt, then Health Secretary, announced an investigation into avoidable baby deaths at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust back in 2017, focusing on a total of 23 cases. However, that figure has since increased to over 270 cases, some of which date back to 1979.

Hundreds of families have alleged the trust provided them with poor maternity care.

An interim report into what has become the largest inquiry into maternity care in the history of the NHS, leaked last month, found a toxic culture had contributed to the avoidable deaths of babies and mothers as well as dozens of instances of significant harm.

Rhiannon Davies, who was among the first to push for the independent inquiry after the death of her baby daughter Kate in 2009, said the trust should "pay the money [from the Maternity Incentive Scheme] back".

"They self-certified that they met the 10 standards, the board signed it off and they received no scrutiny, it is more lies," she said.

"It is another perfect, pure example of SaTh creating their own narrative.

"I want to know what they spent the money on."

Gill Edwards, Partner in our Clinical Negligence team, comments:

"This is very worrying and a full inquiry is needed to look carefully at all of these issues."

Gill Edwards is a Partner within our Clinical Negligence team and a member of the Multi-Professional Advisory Panel of Baby Lifeline, a charity which is dedicated to improving the care of pregnant women and newborn babies by raising funds for maternity and neonatal equipment and providing specialist training.

If you would like to speak with Gill or any other member of our Clinical Negligence team regarding maternity errors, birth injuries, or indeed any other aspect of this article, please contact us today on 0800 027 2557. Alternatively, you can contact Gill directly here.

Potter Rees Dolan's Clinical Negligence team secure over £11 million after medical failings during birth resulted in baby girl suffering severe brain damage and life-changing injuries. Read more...

Potter Rees Dolan's Clinical Negligence team secured £10.6 million for a boy who was left with cerebral palsy following a delayed birth. Read more here...