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Safety watchdog launches probe into NHS maternity delays causing deaths and brain damage

Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch will examine factors leading to delays which it said is linked to stillbirths, neonatal deaths and babies born with suspected brain injuries

Shaun Lintern
Health Correspondent
Thursday 13 February 2020 12:42 GMT
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The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is to investigate maternity safety fears across the NHS
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is to investigate maternity safety fears across the NHS

A national investigation into maternity safety across England has been launched amid fears delays in delivering babies are causing deaths and leaving children with permanent brain damage.

Safety watchdog, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has said it will examine delays in delivering babies where there are suspicions the baby is in difficulty. It will make national safety recommendations for the whole health service.

It has launched the inquiry after reviewing of hundreds of maternity incidents across NHS hospitals since 2018 and comes in the wake of the largest maternity scandal at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, where more than 900 cases of alleged poor care are being examined.

In addition the government has announced an independent inquiry into specific care failings at East Kent Hospitals University Trust today.

In a statement HSIB said delays in taking action when a baby was in distress was a “safety risk in maternity care”.

It added: “Our review indicated that delays to intrapartum (childbirth) intervention once fetal compromise is suspected is a contributing factor to stillbirths, neonatal deaths and babies born with suspected brain injury.”

HSIB said its investigation will look at how staff work in maternity units and how they respond to challenges.

Factors involved in the incidents of poor care which will be considered as part of the investigation included staffing, infrastructure and workload on midwives and doctors.

Intrapartum care covers the start of labour up to the birth of the baby and delivery of the placenta.

At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust the issue of clinicians waiting too long before intervening has been raised as a potential factor in dozens of deaths and brain injury cases there. The trust had one of the lowest caesarean section rates in the country over an eight year period.

HSIB was tasked with carrying out around 1,000 local incident investigations in NHS maternity care from 2018 amid concerns hospitals were failing to properly investigate poor care. It is due to report on the national themes it has identified in coming months.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who set up HSIB to identify systemic safety issues in the NHS in 2017, told The Independent last week that he believed there needed to be a national inquiry into maternity safety due to repeated care scandals.

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