Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – Britain’s biggest maternity scandal?
We last blogged on the serious issues at Leeds in January 2025, when it emerged, following a Freedom of Information Act request, that the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust could have been avoided. These findings, revealed by the BBC, covered a period from January 2019 to July 2024 and came to light after courageous whistleblowers working within the Trust and bereaved parents highlighted serious concerns about the Trust’s maternity units at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital.
On 14 June 2026, the Sunday Times reported on its own investigation into the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. They have two maternity units, located two miles apart. Leeds General Infirmary treats the sickest babies, whilst St James’s University Hospital looks after babies requiring less critical care, and is therefore not set up to provide intensive care and should only do so in emergency situations. Yet, the Sunday Times reports that seriously ill babies were sent to St James’s when they should have been treated at the more specialist Leeds General Infirmary. Indeed, the Sunday Times revealed that concerningly, St James’s University Hospital was providing regular intensive care to babies when there was a lack of suitably qualified specialty nurses, emergency procedures, equipment and sufficient space to do so, allegedly resulting in permanent disability to some babies and harm to up to possibly 3,000 mothers and babies. It is claimed this could be one of the country’s biggest maternity scandals. It is also suggested that overcrowding and poor communication led to babies being referred to the unit for intensive care treatment, which was ultimately beyond its capabilities.
Depressingly, this is just one of many scandals afflicting maternity units in England and Wales. The picture nationally is more worrying than ever, showing a marked and concerning lack of progress in improving maternity standards, to the extent that Baroness Amos’ review into maternity care was commissioned by the former health secretary, Wes Streeting, the publication of which is imminent.
There continues to be both a staffing and recruitment crisis in the sector, with serious shortages of obstetricians and midwives. Consequently, reports are made time and time again of existing staff being too thinly spread, becoming burned out and struggling to provide both competent and compassionate care whilst training and supervision are also badly impacted. Such conditions result in experienced maternity staff leaving the sector, causing the conditions for those remaining to become even worse, making any improvements in maternity care and patient safety practically impossible whilst effectively deterring new talent from entering the profession.
But in the case of Leeds, it seems there were structural and organisational challenges too, amplified by poor communication.
To compound an already challenging situation, there also appears to be an institutional inability to learn from such serious failures. In the case of Leeds, the Sunday Times reports that last year, the maternity unit at St James’s University Hospital was threatened with closure if it did not implement an urgent improvement plan, but in spite of this, it appears that babies allegedly continued to be harmed.
The first meaningful step in trying to address this crisis would be for Leeds to accept full responsibility for the failings at St James’s and to apologise to the families affected and compensate them accordingly. Of course, money is never enough when a family has experienced the heartbreak of loss or the trauma of avoidable harm resulting in serious and life-changing injury; it can’t turn back the clock – but it can go some way to ensuring the complex and evolving needs of a child with serious and life-changing injury are met and that they can live a fulfilling and comfortable life. At the same time, massive investment is needed to recruit more maternity professionals to the sector and to address the staffing crisis. It is essential recruitment is accompanied by strong training and supervision to improve standards and ensure mistakes are learned from and never again repeated.
