Health Secretary "considering a request carefully" for an inquiry into Leeds maternity services
Figures from MBRACE found more baby deaths occurred at Leeds Teaching Hospitals than other comparable trusts.
The Health Secretary said he's "considering a request carefully" for an inquiry into maternity services in Leeds.
It's after last week we told you how figures from the group MBRACE - found more baby deaths occurred at Leeds Teaching Hospitals than other comparable trusts.
Fiona Winser-Ramm and her husband Dan are calling for an independent public inquiry into the maternity services in Leeds.
It's after their daughter, Aliona Grace died in 2020 just 27 minutes after she was born. An inquest found "neglect with a number of gross failures of the most basic nature."
Since then, Fiona and Dan have founded a group on Facebook and found many people to come forward sharing experience with the maternity units in Leeds.
We asked the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, if he would consider an inquiry:
"We've had a number of reviews into maternity crisis, and we've got a national maternity crisis in the NHS and one of things we've been doing since we came into government, is looking at how we make sure that every single recommendation will make a real difference to families, mothers and babies to make sure we are seeing those recommendations turned into action.
"My heart goes out to those families in Leeds I've spent a lot of time over the last eight months, talking to and listening to crucially mums and dads who've been affected by birth injury, baby loss and for those people who've gone through that unimaginable grief and knowing it was preventable.
"I mean that is a form of pain, grief and suffering that I just don't think the rest of us can truly understand and comprehend having not been in those shoes.
"I know they are calling for an inquiry into what's happened in Leeds, I am considering that request carefully and will report back."
We asked Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust last week for a comment.
Dr Magnus Harrison the Chief Medical Officer said:
“We apologise to the women and families who have described poor experiences of care, and we offer our sincere condolences to those families who have lost loved ones.
“We are committed to providing high quality, inclusive, compassionate, and safe care to families who use our maternity services, and we are sorry to hear that on some occasions we fell short of this.
“The safety of our patients is paramount and we recognise these figures from MBRRACE may cause concern.
“The neonatal service at Leeds is one of a handful of specialist centres across the country caring for the most poorly babies, with joint cardiac and surgical services. There is an increasing number of complex pregnancies and births, and babies born with complex conditions, in the Leeds and Yorkshire region, which are not always taken into account in the MBRRACE data.
“Every death of a baby is a tragedy and we will continue to review all deaths and work together with families and peer organisations in the neonatal network to ensure that we share learning.
“We will continue to review our neonatal and perinatal mortality rates working in conjunction with our peers to identify further actions we can take to improve.”
A support group is holding a face-to-face family group session this weekend at Irwin Mitchell's offices in Leeds (Saturday 8th March) for anyone affected.