Nottingham maternity review set to become UK's largest

A review into failings in maternity care in hospitals in Nottingham is set to become the largest in the UK, the BBC understands.

Donna Ockenden, chair of the inquiry, is expected to announce that 1,700 families' cases will be examined.

She was in charge of the probe into services in Shropshire, which found at least 201 babies and mothers might have survived had they received better care.

It focuses on the maternity units at the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital.

So far, 1,266 families have contacted the review team themselves directly and to date, 674 of these have given consent to join it.

But Ms Ockenden has called for a "radical review" to ensure "women from all communities" were being contacted by the trust and "felt confident" to come forward.

The families have asked for the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the trust to agree to change the review from "opt-in" to "opt-out".

Later, chairman Nick Carver will speak on behalf of Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Trust at its annual meeting.

Ms Ockenden's previous review in Shrewsbury and Telford, which used the "opt-out" approach, included more than 95% of affected families.

The Nottingham trust wrote to 1,377 families at the end of November and the end of January.

The letters went to families who had experienced stillbirth, neonatal deaths, brain damage to the baby, harm to mothers or relatives of mothers who died.

But only 360 families have responded to these letters.

In total, 28% of white women contacted responded, while for black and Asian women, the figures were 10% and 5% respectively.

In Nottingham, only about 25% of families known to be affected have been included in the review.

Ms Ockenden said: "As it stands, with our 674 families who have joined the review, I can't say as the chair we have anywhere near a representative sample of the rich diversity that we know exists in Nottingham.

"There is significantly more work to do."