And a scandal to terrif y EVERY p arent
15 dead babies.. 3 dead mums..
NHS staff are being probed over the deaths of 15 babies and three mums.
Medics at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust allegedly failed to spot fatal signs. One mum said: “It’s a toxic culture.”
THE mum of a baby who died at a scandal-hit trust is furious that staff have not learned from alleged blunders and deaths still occur.
Even when mistakes are obvious the trust has not learned. It’s a toxic culture RHIANNON STANTON-DAVIES MUM OF TRAGIC BABY KATE
Rhiannon Stanton-Davies said bosses at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust claimed they had learned lessons after her daughter Kate passed away in 2009 due to failures in her care.
But NHS chiefs are now investigating the deaths of 15 babies and three mums at maternity units there. Several have already been judged avoidable and some were allegedly caused by failure to correctly monitor the heartbeats of tots or spot infections early.
There are fears the tragedies were not probed properly or at all by the trust.
A team is also reviewing 10 further cases where patients survived nearmisses but suffered harm.
A Mirror investigation discovered medics employed by the trust are the focus of both internal and external inquiries. And at least four midwives are being investigated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Maternity care at the Shrewsbury trust was criticised last year after Kate’s death. But Rhiannon said: “It’s shocking that babies have continued to die needlessly despite everything the trust said it had learned since Kate’s death. You can’t put this massive tragedy down to one thing. It is not one individual.
“It is that mistakes continue to happen, nothing is ever learned, and so more babies die. Even when the mistakes are obvious, the trust has not learned from them. It’s a toxic culture.”
A review found Kate died after repeated signs that her pregnancy was risky were not picked up at a midwifeled maternity unit in Ludlow, Shrops.
And this month, an inquest into the death of one-day-old Pippa Griffiths from a streptococcus infection ruled she may have lived had she received better medical care while under the trust.
Mum Kayleigh said: “We expected better from the NHS. We really did. But Pippa was failed.” The trust has since accepted that if staff had spotted the infection earlier the baby would probably have survived.
A cache of documents seen by the Mirror expose how medics ignored key policies and guidelines, made critical mistakes, and failed to learn from blunders. The deaths all happened within the past decade. Families of patients have sent a letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt highlighting 28 cases and asking him to launch a public inquiry. He refused but vowed that each one would be investigated. Mr Hunt wrote: “NHS England and NHS Improvement will review each case to ascertain whether investigations were carried out and assess their robustness.” The trust’s chief executive Simon Wright said: “The death of a baby is the most tragic event imaginable and we again apologise unreservedly to the families. The trust has carried out investigations into every case to ensure lessons can be learned. “We are co-operating fully with the review. We have also invited a review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives to evaluate our service and provide assistance with improvement. However, it is our firm belief that our service provides safe care for women and babies.” NHS Improvement director Kathy McLean said its review “will look back at the way that a number of previous investigations were undertaken”. Have you been affected by maternity care at the trust? Call us on 0800 282 591 or email mirrornews@mirror.co.uk.