Sajid Javid has pledged to “go after” those responsible for the Shrewsbury maternity scandal, as he said no stone will be left unturned in ensuring they are held to account.
On Thursday, Mr Javid said he was “appalled” by the findings of the Ockenden review into maternity failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
The Health Secretary said he was “absolutely determined” to go after the people responsible, saying: “Of course there were systemic failures, we must change systems, but there were also individual failures, and I want to make sure that we leave no stone unturned in finding the people that were responsible for this and making sure that they are held to account.”
Executives who presided over the scandal went on to earn lucrative sums, with some receiving annual rates of almost ￡500,000 from the NHS, The Telegraph can disclose.
The review into the trust, led by Donna Ockenden, a senior midwife, concluded that the deaths of 201 babies and nine mothers between 2000 and 2019 could have been avoided, amid “repeated failures in care over two decades”.
In total, the inquiry examined 1,592 incidents which caused harm to women and babies, in the largest inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS.
Peter Herring, who ran the trust from 2012 to 2015, went on to take an interim role at Sherwood Forest Hospitals on almost ￡40,000 a month. The rates paid for more than four months’ work in 2015 and 2016, were among the highest in the NHS at the time.
He was later put in charge of King's College Hospital NHS Trust for almost a year, again on a temporary basis, with earnings of more than ￡265,000.
The scandal was uncovered following a long battle by Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton, whose daughter Kate died six hours after she was born in 2009, after a catalogue of failings by midwives.
Emails seen by The Telegraph show that in 2014, Mr Herring complained that the couple “had a right go at me” in their calls for an investigation, describing himself as the “subject of their complaint and venom”.
While he was chief executive of the trust, with a salary of ￡185,000, he claimed a tax-free windfall of ￡252,000 by “retiring” for one day, then immediately returning to the same job on his full salary, which is within the rules.
Mr Stanton said “immediate changes” must happen so that people are no longer “rewarded for failure” under a system which allows them to “move on from post to post and leave a trail of devastation behind them”.
Mr Stanton also called for the creation of a register for NHS managers, so they can also be “struck off” for failures.
“I don't think they should work in the NHS ever again, if they have left behind a trail of failure, particularly as is evidenced by this trust,” he said.
It is “sickening” Mr Herring went on to make hundreds of thousands of pounds in other NHS roles, Mr Stanton said.
Mr Stanton and his wife, Rhiannon Davies, submitted a second formal request to the trust, directly to Mr Herring, in November 2012 asking them to fully investigate Kate’s death.
That month, an inquest had ruled her death was avoidable.
The couple, whose daughter died in March 2009, asked Mr Herring to conduct a “robust” investigation and uncover “any wrongdoing”.
Mr Herring wrote back to the couple in January 2013, saying he was "satisfied that all trust requirements for investigation and onward referral for supervision and professional review have been undertaken". He added: "There is no need for a further trust investigation to be carried out.”
Mr Stanton said Mr Herring failed to take the opportunity to prevent any future deaths.
Mr Herring said he has been “shocked and saddened” by failures at the trust and regretted his “error of judgement” in deciding not to investigate the death of Kate Stanton-Davies.
Mr Herring, who has previously apologised for the use of his language in the email about the parents, said he had been fully retired for the best part of three years with no intention of undertaking any work in the NHS.
Simon Wright led the trust from 2015 until 2019, he resigned after regulators criticised his leadership. During his time there, the trust was put into special measures over failures in accident and emergency, and maternity care - and rated “inadequate”.
After resigning, he went on to be a “transformation consultant” for the Virginia Mason Institute, a hospital group that has a five-year contract with NHS England to improve safety and leadership at five NHS trusts - including Shrewsbury and Telford until 2021 - according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Telegraph was unable to contact Mr Wright on Thursday. He previously accused journalists of “scaremongering” in 2018, when the scope of Ms Ockenden’s report was widened beyond the original 23 cases.
The inquiry examined failings in maternity which date back as far as 2000.
Neil Taylor led the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for four years before it merged with the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford in 2003, when he was put in charge of the new trust.
But in 2005, he was convicted of fraud for lying on his CV, having claimed a first class degree from the University of Nottingham to secure the ￡112,000-a year post, when in fact he had never been to university.
He was caught out in a salary review in 2004, when he produced a fake diploma for a BA in business administration and economics. Mr Taylor, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to one charge of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and one of attempting to commit the same offence, went on to work in health consultancy.
The Telegraph was unable to contact Mr Taylor on Thursday, but he told The Times earlier this week he “would like to express my sincere sadness and sympathy to the mums and families affected”.
Tom Taylor, who was chief executive from 2004 until 2010, is still working for the health service as chairman of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority.
He said when he had engaged with the public, no concerns were raised about maternity services - but added that “clearly every baby lost is a tragedy that we all regret”.
Adam Cairns was chief executive from 2010 until 2012 when he moved to Doha, Qatar, where he was appointed chief executive of its flagship Medical City complex in 2016.
He said on Thursday he is no longer in work and “voluntarily spoke” to the Ockenden review team.
Mr Cairns expressed his “sorrow at the grief and distress of all the families affected by the events covered by the Ockenden report” and apologised to the families who were affected during his tenure.
Peter Walsh, from safety charity Action Against Medical Accidents, called for action so that NHS managers who oversaw scandals could not be rehired elsewhere.
He said current stipulations were “woefully inadequate”.
“We need NHS managers to be regulated in a similar way to doctors and nurses, where they can be struck off a register and prevented from taking on similar roles,” he said.