Thursday, October 20, 2022
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NEWS Rowers taking on challenge Page 2
FEATURE An incredible visual feast Page 9
SPORT Shrews sting the Hornets Page 36
Chronicle Shrewsbury
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BOARD REVIEW FOR NHS TRUST
A review of board governance at Shropshire’s major hospitals trust is under way after an independent report criticised its handling of concerns over failings in maternity care. The report, into the board of Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust, follows an investigation carried out by Fiona Scolding KC, which was commissioned by the trust after complaints from Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton in 2020. Ms Davies and Mr Stanton’s daughter, Kate, died avoidably while in the trust’s care in 2009. Campaigning by the couple ultimately led to the Ockenden Inquiry, which confirmed serious and harrowing failures in maternity care at the trust. The latest report was sparked by their concerns about former board chairman Ben Reid and the actions of the board. Ms Scolding has concluded that Mr Reid was “fit and proper”, stating: “Mistakes were made – and not everything was handled as it could and should have been. I do not find however that any of these actions amount to ‘serious mismanagement’.” She added: “The evidence shows that Mr Reid did take steps to seek to improve patient safety. The
By Dominic Robertson
difficulty was trying to make such improvements when not given the relevant information to make a strategic difference and in the context of an organisation which was broken.” However, the report criticises the board’s management and scrutiny of issues in maternity care, finding it was too accepting of information and decisions put before it. It is also criticised over a delay in publishing a controversial report looking at the trust’s maternity services, carried out by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). Ms Scolding also found failings in the way the trust had dealt with Ms Davies and Mr Stanton and their daughter’s death. The board’s current chair, Catriona McMahon, Mr Reid’s successor, offered an unreserved apology to them. She said: “I would like to draw specific attention of the board to Ms Scolding’s conclusion that it is undoubtedly true the trust has not dealt with the complaints in an open and honest way and for this I unreservedly apologise to Ms Davies and Mr Stanton.”
Steampunk celebration
Life-saving CPR training
Shrewsbury shoppers were shown how to carry out life-saving first-aid treatment by a team of professionals from Staffordshire University. Tom Wood, who is a lecturer at the university, welcomed passers-by in The Square, Shrewsbury, on Monday, as they stopped to learn CPR. Tom and his colleagues showed commuters and shoppers how to effectively carry-out CPR – free of charge – by setting up mannequins for people to use. Tom said: “We have probably had 20 or 30 people who have stopped and had a go using the mannequins and are learning to do CPR.”
Tree scheme taking root
Warwick Penfold and Belinda Cheng joined in with the festival Steampunks staged a town-centre takeover with a ‘spooky spectacular’ attracting hundreds of visitors. Shrewsbury’s St Mary’s Church was the venue for the Shrewsbury Steampunk Spooky Spectacular last Saturday, with stalls, music, food,
dancing – and above all plenty of costumed steampunk enthusiasts. Organiser Clare Harvey said: “We are really pleased with the turnout. There are lots of steam punks, lots of new faces and lots of ‘muggles’ as we call them.”
A scheme has been launched to help encourage gardeners to recycle unwanted trees growing on their plots. Shropshire Council, working in partnership with Shrewsbury Town Council, is asking for unwanted seedlings that would otherwise be destroyed to be donated to Shrewsbury’s Weeping Cross nursery. Once there, they will be re-purposed and planted in appropriate sites around the county. The donated trees will be tagged and monitored for pests and diseases by nursery staff, and logged to a database, to enable people to discover where they have been planted.
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