Hospital trust apologises for stillbirth reporting errors
BBCA hospital trust has apologised to families for sharing incorrect data around the number of stillbirths experienced by mothers in their care.
The figures, from Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust, were presented in a report on maternity services for the county's joint health overview and scrutiny committee (JHOSC) in January.
But after concerns were highlighted by bereaved families and the Families Failed by OUH group over inaccurate figures for stillbirth babies in 2023, the committee asked for further clarification.
The trust's interim chief executive, Simon Crowther, has now written to JHOSC, acknowledging the mistakes and apologising for the distress it may have caused.
OUH is responsible for maternity services at both the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.
The trust is part of a national review into failings around maternity care, announced by the government last November.
A BBC investigation has since found that 58 babies might have been saved with better levels of care.
The reporting error in January showed the number of still births for 2022, rather than 2023.
It was spotted by Pedro Jacob and Alice Topping, parents of baby Smokey, who died during labour at the John Radcliffe Hospital's maternity unit in September 2023.
In Crowther's letter, while apologising to parents and the committee, he said the mistake was corrected within two weeks of being found and OUH has since "strengthened internal sign-off processes to prevent future errors".
Alice Topping said: "Each baby who died, each figure, each statistic, they represent entire lifetimes lost. Treating them just as a statistic, it erases the immense pain and suffering.
"It represents a pattern of a normalisation of preventable deaths and a dismissal – a lack of accountability and acknowledgement. If OUH have learnt from this? We will see in the future."
Rebecca Matthews, co-founder of Families Failed by OUH, said further details were withheld from the committee at the January meeting.
She said: "Local accountability mechanisms for OUH maternity services have failed the families we represent."
The health overview scrutiny committee has now offered a "facilitation exercise" to help discussions between OUH and the families concerned.
The BBC has contacted OUH for a comment.
17 April 2026: Further reporting has been added to reflect the comments from Alice Topping.
