21 July 2020

NHS Improvement has today published a report following a review of the way SaTH handled a report produced by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on Maternity Services at the Trust.

The report can be seen here.

Ben Reid, Chair of SaTH, said: “I accept the findings of the report of the investigation into SaTH’s handling of the Trust-commissioned Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) report and will act on all of the recommendations.

“Whilst the report states that the RCOG report was not withheld from the Board, it is clear that internal scrutiny would have been improved if we had decided not to wait for the addendum to the report before placing it before the Board and the Quality and Safety Committee.

“Action plans were being produced within the Trust but, without the oversight of the full governance process, that clearly wasn’t a robust enough response.

“We, as a Trust, and I personally, have learnt a valuable lesson as to how we handle such reports in the future. I consider it my responsibility to take these lessons forward and ensure they are applied across the organisation.”