Swansea Bay University Health Board – families affected by failures in maternity care call for current ‘scam’ review to be scrapped

Back in April, Scala was asked to help a group of families with concerns about maternity services at Singleton Hospital in Wales, and the inadequacies of the review currently being undertaken by Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB). Led by a whistleblowing father, Robert Channon, whose son Gethin was born with cerebral palsy, the group had achieved regional coverage but wanted help to share their experiences and concerns nationally.

This led Scala to launching a coordinated PR campaign, working directly with several families involved in the ongoing scandal at Singleton Hospital. For several years now Rob, alongside his wife, Sian, have been campaigning for safe maternity care at the Unit after what happened to Gathin, who now requires round-the-clock care from his parents. Although Rob had secured several key regional pieces that drew attention to the review, along with vital posts on social media, he sought Scala’s expertise and connections to push the story into the national conversation.

Speaking with Families

Scala has a long history of PR campaigns surrounding the topic of maternity care in the UK. Alongside Jack and Sarah Hawkins, we helped explode the conversation for the Nottingham Maternity Scandal, from one family to over 2000. With this in mind, our first port of call was sitting with Rob and Sian to understand their experience and learn what they wanted to achieve with our PR support.

Rob quickly put us in contact with several families that also wanted to speak out against Singleton and the review. After learning about their heartbreaking stories and gathering all the information Rob had on the review, be it emails, investigations, or interventions, we began the process of drafting a complex yet impactful media release.

Liaising with Press

A vital part of Scala’s work is our relationship with the press. They come to us to trust that our information is accurate and our stories are substantive. We knew from the beginning that the scale of this story would draw the attention of national outlets, so it was crucial that we laid down a plan of action to ensure the outlets secured the coverage they needed.

Contacting Donna Ockenden’s Team

Following Scala’s coordination with families and the press to secure coverage, and Rob Channon’s previous call for Donna Ockenden to lead a new review into Swansea Bay Hospital’s maternity services, we contacted Donna and her team.

From here, we helped to secure key interviews that were broadcast as part of ITV and Sky’s national coverage. Alongside this, Donna’s written statement was sent out to the press for the online pieces, with PA Media leading the charge here.

Donna’s powerful message added an exclamation mark at the end of Rob Channon’s calls for the review to be scrapped and rebooted, with families at the forefront.

Senior Midwife, Donna Ockenden, chair of the Nottingham Maternity Review, said:

“It is unbelievable that in 2024, bereaved and harmed families are needing to actively campaign for a maternity review that they feel they can trust. Families’ voices must be at the heart of any Review or inquiry, unfortunately we have heard from many families that Swansea Bay Health Board have not engaged effectively and respectfully with them at all. After campaigning for so long for their voices to be heard, and waiting for over six months since the Review started, families have said that they have not been included in a meaningful way in any of the review processes to date. They are mistrustful and have no faith or confidence in the current review.

“The same devastating experiences were echoed by the families of Nottingham who campaigned for an independent review for far too long – this should not happen, families must be listened to in the first instance and not as an afterthought. Families have already suffered enough, some will be providing twenty-four hour care to their harmed children or are having to cope, manage and live with the lifelong grief following the death of their baby (or babies) who have died whilst under the Trust’s ‘care’. The current Review does not have the confidence of the families, and has only served to compound the harm experienced by families. I wholly support and fully endorse the families, in their view that this Review should be closed. The next step must be the setting up of a fit for purpose review, co-produced with affected and harmed families where the Terms of Reference, the Chair and the way the Review works must be fully approved by families. I look forward to hearing that this has happened in the coming days.”

Secured Coverage

This was a particularly difficult PR campaign to execute due to unforeseen circumstances that impacted Scala’s media plan. On the very day that we launched the media release, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the general election. This led to the press being extremely stretched over the next six weeks.

With this in mind, we informed families that we would wait to hold interviews until after the election, as we didn’t want this important story to be lost in the shuffle of electoral politics. The decision ultimately paid off, leading to the national coverage that the families were hoping for.

Some highlights of the coverage Scala secured for the families can be seen here:

• SKY NEWS - Leading midwife 'appalled' by maternity unit's treatment of families
• ITV NATIONAL - Senior midwife backs families calling for scrapping of Swansea maternity review
• INDEPENDENT - Families brand review of maternity services at Welsh hospital a ‘scam’
• EVENING STANDARD - Families brand review of maternity services at Welsh hospital a ‘scam’

 

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The Initial Media Release

5 months into 10 month Swansea Bay University Health Board review still leaves families excluded – despite publicity promising involvement

Over 60 families have come forward to voice their concerns over lack of transparency in review of maternity services at Singleton Hospital

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

• Robert Channon, initial whistleblower and father of Gethin
• Sian Channon, mother of Gethin
• Adele Griffiths , mother of Brandon
• Kathryn Arnold, mother of Kingsley
• The fourth family that wishes to remain ANONYMOUS

All interview and press information is found below.

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An external independent review commissioned by the Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) which began in January shows no signs of engaging effectively with families who have experienced poor maternity care at Singleton Hospital.

Despite commissioning the review in December 2023, the Terms of Reference for the review still haven’t been finalised by those leading the Swansea Bay Independent Maternity and Neonatal Review. Instead, a draft version has been published, which affected families say is reflective of the poor progress, given that it is now nearly 6 months into the expected 10 month review.

Over 60 families have voiced their concerns over the current review from the Health Board, with Robert Channon, father of Gethin, saying that “for a wide range of reasons, families simply have no confidence in the current review”.

A full timeline of events surrounding Singleton Hospital’s maternity unit are found below in table.

Communications from the Review Chair, Margaret Bowron KC

The families have lost trust in the review due to its lack of transparency. In February 2024, Robert Channon put in a Freedom of Information request in order to get answers on why he and other families had not been contacted during the ongoing review process.

In it he discovered an email from Margaret Bowron KC to an unknown recipient (redacted) which had copied an email from Mr Channon along with a proposed response to him.

 

 

 

The families who have been affected by failures in maternity care are particularly upset by Ms Bowron’s side-remark of “I do want to close this down”. Her remark refers to the families request for a meeting to discuss the review as they felt “excluded from the whole process”. They believe it reveals that not only has there been a lack of communication between the families and Margaret Bowron KC, the review team was actively choosing to not engage with them.

Following the disclosure of this email from Margaret Bowron KC, Llais Cymru (Wales’ ‘patient voice’ with a mandate from the Health Minister) agreed with the families, and wrote to the SBUHB (letter dated 29^th April 2024) stating that “As a rule of thumb Llias would always view time spent with those most impacted by health services to be invaluable to a proper understating of any systemic issues that might need to be improved. We are therefore disappointed that the Chair could not find the time to meet the families as well as the poor choice of works that left the families feeling that they were being fobbed off”. 

In this same letter, they state clear questions they want the Health Board to answer:

“ 1. What does the Health Board plan to do to restore faith in the independent review taking place?

2. A response to the request made by Mrs. Sue Evans last week for the Health Board to contact all the women who received maternity treatment over the period being reviewed so that they could comment upon the Terms of Reference of the review.

3. For the Health Board to support Llais by disseminating our own questionnaire via similar channels. Please let me know whom we should liaise with to facilitate this.”

Families Not Heard by Independent Review

On 12^th December 2023, the Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) announced it had commissioned an independent review of its maternity and neonatal services. The Health Board acknowledged the internal and external reviews of Singleton over the previous five years (listed below in table).

In the announcement, it states there will be “a public call out for contribution from recent service users will be made at the outset with individuals given the option of writing to the reviewers or, in some cases, meeting the review team on a one-to-one basis.”

However, over 60 families have reported feeling excluded from the report, and despite efforts to contact Chair of Maternity and Neonatal Review Margaret Bowron KC, no individual meetings have taken place.

Instead, on 20^th May 2024, a combined meeting for families and staff from Singleton Hospital’s maternity unit took place at the same time. A decision that caused further distress for the families who wish to engage with the review. The prospect of potentially being in a meeting with the same staff who could very well have caused harm to their babies, was too much to deal with, and therefore a decision was made to boycott the joint meeting for fear of compounding their distress.

With the timeline of events in mind and the continual exclusion of families involved, there are several clear reasons they have lost faith in the review:

- Margaret Bowron KC was appointed by Health Board Chair who was chair throughout all of the failing and complaints being made for several years

- Health Board have appointed every expert on the review without consultation

- There has been no contact / consultation with victims on any aspect of the review despite repeated attempts by many families

- Margaret Bowron KC has refused to engage with families and suggested ‘closing it down’ when discussing a request for a meeting

- No patient involved in Oversight Panel

- No mental health support has been offered to families

- No commitment to actually publish the entire review, only that selected by the oversight committee from three base reviews

- The Terms of Reference to date contain Health Board PR which gaslights victims and the document was authored by the Head of Communications for SBUHB.

Timeline of Events (Not Exhaustive)

Moving into December 2022 and across 2023, three more Quality Safety Risk Meeting of Singleton Service Group (SBUHB) took place. During the first on 13^th December 2022, no one from the maternity department showed up. The second on 30^th March 2023, corporate safeguarding team was requested to conduct safeguarding review of maternity. The third, on 4^th May 2023, noted that Singleton Service Group not performing well on concerns and investigations.

In 2024, 29 affected families and victims asked the Chair of Maternity and Neonatal Review, Margaret Bowron KC, to step down.

Statement from Robert Channon

“We have been raising issues with the safety of the maternity unit in Singleton Hospital, Swansea since we received a devastating report from Dr Bill Kirkup in early 2022. Every concern we had has been validated by two HIW inspections and internal SBUHB documents obtained through FOI requests.

We had hoped that the external review announced in December 2023 would lead to answers for us and the over 60 victims who have so far come forward. Instead, we were shut out by the Health Board and then the Chair of the review.

This process has caused considerable distress for victims, compounding the suffering they have already experienced. Rather than wasting more time and causing more heartbreak to victims with the current review, we’d like it to be shut down and for the Ockenden team to take over. We have seen their track record and know that a thorough investigation that is open with families would take place.”

If you are looking for PR or marketing support, please contact Scala today and speak to a member of our team.