Nhs Trust Repays £5m Over Maternity Failings

An NHS spot astatine nan centre of concerns complete its mediocre maternity services has had to repay almost £5m aft wrongly claiming it provided safe attraction to mothers and their babies.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was paid nan money aft saying its services met safe standards of attraction and staffing.

But a consequent investigation by nan wellness service's litigation arm, NHS Resolution, recovered nan spot had not met nan standards and asked for nan money to beryllium repaid to nan NHS.

The Leeds spot said they had allocated further backing to amended maternity services.

The spot received nan money nether a programme called nan Maternity Incentive Scheme, which is tally by NHS Resolution to promote nan wellness work to supply bully maternity care.

Hospitals are asked to judge their capacity against a scope of standards, including listening to patients' concerns, staffing levels and decently investigating deaths.

If a spot meets each 10 information measures, it tin get a rebate connected its security premiums arsenic good arsenic a stock of nan money paid by trusts that do not meet each nan goals.

For nan past 2 years, nan Leeds spot reported it had met each 10 standards and was paid £4,887,084 from nan scheme.

But nan regulator, nan Care Quality Commission (CQC), published a damning study successful June astir maternity services astatine nan trust.

Care was rated arsenic inadequate, nan lowest level, and it warned that women and babies were being exposed to "significant risk".

The study prompted NHS Resolution to inquire Leeds to re-examine its submissions to nan Maternity Incentive Scheme. The consequent reappraisal recovered not each information standards had been met, forcing nan spot to repay each nan money it had received.

"The repayment of nan grant is agelong overdue and should beryllium going backmost moreover further," said Fiona Winser-Ramm, who mislaid her girl Aliona successful 2020 aft what an inquest recovered to beryllium a number of "gross failures" successful nan attraction they received.

"This provides yet further grounds for nan request for a full, independent enquiry into nan Leeds trust," she said, believing this should beryllium led by elder nurse Donna Ockenden.

Mrs Winser-Ramm was among a group of parents who met Health Secretary Wes Streeting past week and demanded an investigation into maternity services astatine nan trust.

Streeting has truthful acold refused to bid specified an enquiry but nan families, who person each knowledgeable mediocre maternity care, said they remained hopeful.

Over nan past fewer months, dozens of families person told nan BBC they received inadequate attraction astatine nan trust.

The Maternity Incentive Scheme has been beset by problems since it was group up successful 2018 by nan past wellness secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

NHS trusts pinch mediocre maternity information records, including Shrewsbury and Telford, Morecambe Bay, East Kent and Nottingham person each claimed to person met nan 10 standards and been paid millions of pounds only to later person to repay it.

An study published by NHS Resolution successful July recovered 24 trusts person had to repay premiums complete nan first 4 years of nan scheme, pinch 18 of them having to do truthful much than once.

"Nationally, families person agelong raised concerns astir nan immense flaws of nan self- appraisal progressive by individual trusts successful nan maternity inducement scheme," said Mrs Winser-Ramm.

"Serious questions request to beryllium asked astir how, if trusts are incapable to accurately self-report compliance, really satisfied tin we beryllium that akin misreporting is not commonplace successful different areas of self-reporting."

After nan reappraisal recovered Leeds had to repay nan money it had received, nan spot applied to a abstracted money tally by NHS Resolution for maternity betterment support and was allocated £2.1m.

In a connection to nan BBC, nan Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust did not explicate really it had erroneously self-reported that it was compliant pinch each nan standards of nan scheme.

"We identified that we were not afloat compliant pinch nan MIS scheme," said Magnus Harrison, nan trust's main aesculapian officer.

"We person now been allocated £2.1m to support our action scheme to execute compliance, which forms portion of our Maternity and Neonatal Improvement Programme."