In 2026, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has become an unsettling symbol of what can happen when warning signs are disregarded for years on end when people discuss the NHS—its overburdened resources, its postcode lotteries, its moments of brilliance, and its profound failures.
One of the biggest acute teaching trusts in England is this one. It employs over 16,000 people and serves about 2.5 million people across its two main campuses, Queen’s Medical Center and City Hospital. It has the authority and standing of a reputable organization on paper. The image is now much more difficult to view from the ground.
The Ockenden Report, which was published in June 2026 following a review that collected testimonies from 2,500 families and more than 800 staff members, concluded that 260 babies—155 of whom died and 105 of whom suffered severe brain injuries—may have had different outcomes if they had received different care. The review’s chair, senior midwife Donna Ockenden, detailed persistent disregard for women’s concerns, a culture that allegedly labeled black women as “too loud, too demanding.” The timeline is what makes this especially challenging to deal with. The review found that trust leaders had been aware of significant issues in the maternity department since at least 2010. That’s more than ten years of lost chances.
In front of the cameras, Anthony May, the CEO of the trust, declared that he accepted “responsibility” for the deficiencies that occurred under his supervision. It’s the kind of statement that seems significant at the time. Families who have been waiting years for answers will have to make their own judgments about whether it results in long-lasting change.
For any hospital trust, the maternity shortcomings would have been sufficient to characterize a problematic period. However, the mortuary results added something even more difficult to comprehend. Eight bodies in a state of advanced deterioration were discovered at the QMC during an unexpected inspection by the Human Tissue Authority in March 2026. The bodies had not been moved to a freezer in time because the hospitals had simply run out of freezer space. Additionally, inspectors noted that identity checks on bodies sealed in bags weren’t always carried out correctly, increasing the likelihood that the wrong body might be given to a bereaved family.
As part of Operation Perth, a police investigation that has been ongoing since 2023, two men have since been released on bond following arrests related to the mortuary’s operational procedures.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that many of these failures have a common theme: inadequately resourced systems, failure to escalate warning signs, and audits revealing that slightly more than half of 145 incidents that ought to have been reported to regulators were not. The HTA observed that improvements had been made since the inspection and that the trust complied with most of its requirements. It’s important to recognize that. However, there is still a noticeable discrepancy between what was recorded and what was implemented.
The NHS is under constant strain due to aging infrastructure, growing maintenance backlogs, and trusts being asked to accomplish more with less. In 2022, NUH had the fourth-highest outstanding maintenance bill in the English NHS, totaling £407 million. Failures are not excused by context, but it does help explain how an institution can progressively and almost imperceptibly descend into crisis until the cumulative weight of it becomes unavoidable.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has the potential to become a significant hub for education, research, and care, as it was intended to be. The clinical expertise is genuine, the partnership with the University of Nottingham is genuine, and most employees are working hard under challenging circumstances. However, it takes more than action plans and an apology to repair credibility once it has been severely damaged. The families at the center of both scandals have already endured enough waiting and deserve nothing less than long-term, demonstrable change.
