The Story Broken trust: Inside England's maternity scandal
Feb 23, 2026
Poppy Koronka, health correspondent at The Times who has reported on NHS maternity scandals, guides listeners through investigations into systemic failings across multiple trusts. She outlines major reviews, personal stories of families harmed, patterns like the push for 'normal birth' and how families mobilised for answers. Short, urgent and deeply human.
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Ockenden's Multidisciplinary Case Reviews
- Donna Ockenden built a multidisciplinary review approach to examine each tragic maternity case with relevant experts.
- The team pulled in midwives, obstetricians, neonatologists and specialists to determine if hospital care causally contributed to harm.
Scale Revealed Systemic Failings
- The Shrewsbury review expanded from 23 to nearly 1,500 affected families covering two decades of care.
- That scale reframed the problem as systemic rather than isolated within a single trust.
Four Pillars To Fix Maternity Care
- Ockenden's final Shrewsbury report set four pillars: safe staffing, funding and training, learning from incidents, and listening to families.
- These straightforward pillars targeted cultural issues like cover-ups and ignoring women's concerns.