High newborn death rates revealed at large trust

A trust whose maternity care is under scrutiny had neonatal mortality rates nearly twice the average of similar units in 2023, new audit figures reveal.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust — which runs a high level (Level 3) neonatal intensive care unit, with neonatal surgery — has had higher than average adjusted death rates since 2017, the first year recorded by the MBRRACE-UK audit.

But they have risen sharply in both 2022 and 2023, while the national rate has remained steady.

The 2023 figures, published this month, give LTH’s neonatal mortality rate as 5.01 per 1,000 live births in 2023, compared to a group average of 2.6 for the total 26 UK providers with a level 3 NICU and neonatal.

Last month the BBC reported the trust had information suggesting the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers during the past five years could have been prevented.

Fiona Winser-Ramm and Dan Ramm, whose first baby Aliona Grace died at Leeds shortly after her birth in 2020, said the new MBRRACE data reinforced their demands for a local inquiry into LTH maternity services.

Mr Ramm said: “They now look like an outlier. That figure of 5.01 is 92 per cent higher than the average of the comparator group. It is almost a scandal hiding in plain sight.”

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Source: HSJ, 24 February 2025