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Found 547 results
  1. News Article
    A new treatment to protect babies against a common and potentially dangerous winter virus has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the main reason children under five end up in hospital. In a normal winter, RSV mostly causes coughs and colds which clear up in a couple of weeks - but it can be particularly serious in infants under the age of two, causing severe lung problems such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Every year, about 29,000 babies need hospital care for RSV and most have no other health issues beforehand. The new antibody treatment, called nirsevimab, from Sanofi and AstraZeneca, has already been shown to reduce lower respiratory tract infections caused by RSV by 74.5% in trials involving 4,000 babies. It works by preventing RSV from fusing to cells in the respiratory tract and causing infections. But it still needs more research in larger numbers of babies before it can be used on the NHS. Researchers now plan to investigate whether it can cut the number of babies needing hospital care for RSV, and are urging parents to sign up to their study. The study is open to newborn babies and those up to 12 months old. Only one visit for the antibody injection is needed, and follow-up sessions happen via an app. Co-study leader Dr Simon Drysdale, consultant paediatrician in infectious diseases at London's St George's Hospital, said the treatment could eventually be given at birth to offer protection for the first months of life, or during routine immunisations at two months old. Read full story Source: 10 November 2022
  2. News Article
    The death of a three-day-old baby could have been avoided if medical professionals had acted differently, a coroner concluded. Rosanna Matthews died three days after being delivered at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent in November 2020. The hospital trust apologised, saying the level of care for Ms Sala and her daughter “fell short of standards”. Ms Sala told the inquest midwives were "bickering" and appeared confused during her labour. She claimed that if she had been allowed to start pushing when she wanted to, instead of waiting as midwives advised, Rosanna would have lived. Rachel Thomas, then deputy head of gynaecology and midwifery, said there had been "errors in communication". Following the conclusion of the inquest, the coroner ruled Rosanna died following a “prolonged period of avoidable hypoxia”, which led to brain damage. The coroner, sitting in Maidstone, also found midwives at the hospital failed to recognise that Rosanna was already unwell with congenital pneumonia. Ms Sala said her daughter could have lived had medical professionals acted differently on the day of her birth. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 November 2022
  3. News Article
    The proportion of newborn babies receiving a timely health visitor check-in has fallen sharply, with one in five missing out in the most recent statistics available. Official data reveals that only 82.6% of babies received a new birth visit within their first fortnight in 2021-22, as is recommended, and in the fourth quarter of the year it dropped as low as 79.3%. This is the lowest proportion recorded in recent years in the annual dataset on health visitor service delivery metrics, published by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities. According to the NHS website, a health visitor new birth visit is supposed to take place between 10 and 14 days after birth and is designed to offer advice on issues including safe sleeping, vaccinations, infant feeding, infant development, and adjusting to life as a parent. Kate Holmes, head of support and information at charity The Lullaby Trust, said: “Safer sleep saves babies’ lives and all families should be given advice on how to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome for their baby. The new birth visit is a key opportunity for health visitors to talk to families about safer sleep and to provide them with information and support that takes their individual and family circumstances into account.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 November 2022
  4. News Article
    A baby was left "severely disabled" after a delay during his delivery by Caesarean section, a High Court judge has been told. Betsi Cadwaladr health board will pay £4m in compensation after a negligence claim was brought by one of the boy's relatives. He has required 24-hour care since his birth in 2018 at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire. The hospital apologised, saying doctors are "working hard" to learn lessons. "We are extremely sorry," barrister Alexander Hutton KC, representing the health board, told Mr Justice Soole. "[Betsi Cadwaladr] is working hard to learn lessons from this case," he added. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 November 2022
  5. News Article
    A new study shows a quarter of mothers say their choices were not respected during childbirth, with some left with life-changing injuries as a result, despite Britain’s highest judges establishing women should be the primary decision makers during labour five years ago. A poll of 1,145 women, carried out by leading pregnancy charity Birthrights and shared exclusively with The Independent, also found that a third said healthcare professionals did not even seek their own opinions on the childbirth process, while 14& said their choices were overruled. One woman told The Independent she had been forced to give up her career as a lawyer following what she described as a “violent delivery”, while her baby daughter also sustained serious injuries to her face which can still be seen now – 12 years after she gave birth. Birthrights, which campaigns for respectful pregnancy care for women, pointed to the fact half a decade has passed since Nadine Montgomery’s Supreme Court case proved mothers-to-be are the primary decision-makers in their own care yet this is still not the reality for the majority of women. Read full story Source: The Independent, 3 September 2020
  6. News Article
    Current scientific techniques are not yet safe or effective enough to be used to create gene-edited babies, an international committee says. The technology could one day prevent parents from passing on heritable diseases to children, but the committee says much more research is needed. The world's first gene-edited babies were born in China in November 2018. The scientist responsible was jailed, amid a fierce global backlash. The committee was set up in response. Gene-editing could potentially help avoid a range of heritable diseases by deleting or changing troublesome coding in embryos. But experts worry that modifying the genome of an embryo could cause unintended harm, not only to the individual but also future generations that inherit these same changes. It made several recommendations, including: Extensive conversations in society before a country decides whether to permit this type of gene-editing. If proven to be safe and effective, initial uses should be limited to serious, life-shortening diseases which result from the mutation of one or both copies of a single gene, such as cystic fibrosis. Rigorous checks at every stage of the process to make sure there are no unintended consequences, including biopsies and regular screening of embryos. Pregnancies and any resulting children to be followed up closely. An international scientific advisory panel should be established to constantly assess evidence on safety and effectiveness, allowing people to report concerns about any research that deviates from guidelines. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 September 2020
  7. News Article
    High-risk women at a maternity unit were not monitored closely enough and there was a "lack of learning" from a mother's death, inspectors found. A Care Qualtiy Commission (CQC) report rated the unit at Basildon University Hospital as inadequate with "failings" found in six other serious cases. Inspectors carried out unannounced checks in June after a whistleblower voiced fears about patient safety. The unit was criticised following the deaths of baby Ennis Pecaku in September 2018 and mother Gabriela Pintilie, 36, in February 2019. The CQC previously carried out an inspection of the department the month Mrs Pintilie died and said the unit, which had once been rated outstanding, required improvement. Inspectors returned for the surprise "focused" inspection after being contacted by an anonymous whistleblower. The report found babies were born in a poor condition and then transferred for cooling therapy, which can be offered for newborn babies with brain injury caused by oxygen shortage during birth. During their visit, inspectors found: High-risk women giving birth in a low-risk area. Not enough staff with the right skills and experience. "Dysfunctional" working between midwives, doctors and consultants, which had an impact on the "increased number of safety incidents reported". Concerns over foetal heart monitoring. Women being referred to by room numbers instead of their names. A "lack of response by consultants to emergencies" resulting in delays The CQC also referred to issues relating to the death of Mrs Pintilie, who was not named in the report, and said five serious incidents "identified the same failings of care". Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 August 2020 "This demonstrated there had been a lack of learning from previous incidents and actions put in place were not embedded."
  8. News Article
    Hundreds more cases of potentially avoidable baby deaths, stillbirths and brain damage have emerged at an NHS trust, raising concerns about a possible cover-up of the true extent of one the biggest scandals in the health service’s history. The additional 496 cases raise further serious concerns about maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust since 2000. The cases involving stillbirths, neonatal deaths or baby brain damage, as well as a small number of maternal deaths, have been passed to an independent maternity review, led by the midwifery expert Donna Ockenden. They bring the total number of cases being examined to 1,862. They will also be passed to West Mercia police, which last month launched a criminal investigation into the trust’s maternity services. Detectives are trying to establish whether there is enough evidence to bring charges of corporate manslaughter against the trust or individual manslaughter charges against staff involved. The extra 496 cases had not emerged until now because an “open book” initiative led by the NHS in 2018 asked only for digital records of cases identified as a cause for serious concerns. The vast majority of the 496 further cases were recorded only in paper documents. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 July 2020
  9. News Article
    African American children are three times more likely than their white peers to die after surgery despite arriving at hospitals without serious underlying conditions, the latest evidence of unequal outcomes in health care, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics, “We know that traditionally, African Americans have poorer health outcomes across every age strata you can look at,” said Olubukola Nafiu, the lead researcher and an anaesthesiologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “One of the explanations that’s usually given for that, among many, is that African American patients tend to have higher comorbidities. They tend to be sicker.” But his research challenges that explanation, he said, by finding a racial disparity even among otherwise healthy children who came to hospitals for mostly elective surgeries. Out of 172,549 children, 36 died within a month of their operation. But of those children, nearly half were black – even though African Americans made up 11% of the patients overall. Black children had a 0.07% chance of dying after surgery, compared with 0.02% for white children. Postoperative complications and serious adverse events were also more likely among the black patients and they were more likely to require a blood transfusion, experience sepsis, have an unplanned second operation or be unexpectedly intubated. Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 July 2020
  10. News Article
    Babies are at risk of dying from common treatable infections because NHS staff on maternity wards are not following national guidance and are short-staffed and overworked, an investigation has revealed. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), a national safety watchdog, has warned that NHS staff on maternity wards face sometimes conflicting advice on treating women who are positive for a group B streptococcus (GBS) infection. They are also making errors in women’s care because of the pressure of work and a lack of staff, with antibiotics not being administered when they should be. HSIB’s specialist investigators examined 39 safety incidents in which GSB had been identified, and found that the infection had contributed to six baby deaths, six stillbirths and three cases of babies being left with severe brain damage. In its report, the watchdog warned that the problems on maternity wards meant that even in cases where mothers were known to be positive for GBS infection, this wasn’t shared with the mother or noted in the record, resulting in the standard care and antibiotics not being provided. It added: “The identification and escalation of care for babies who show signs of GBS infection after birth was missed. This has resulted in severe brain injury and death for some of the affected babies.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 July 2020
  11. News Article
    Only two out of 23 recommendations from a royal college review into a trust’s troubled maternity services can be shown to be fully implemented, a new investigation has revealed. A learning and review committee, set up by East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, found that 11 more of the recommendations from a 2016 review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) were “partially” implemented. But it said there was either no evidence the remaining 10 had been delivered, or there was evidence they were not implemented. The original RCOG review looked at a number of cases where babies had died as well as broader issues within the maternity service at the trust. The committee was set up after an inquest into the death of Harry Richford, who died a week after his birth in 2017 at the trust’s Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Hospital in Thanet. Many of the issues which came to light at his inquest echoed those from the RCOG report. Committee chair Des Holden, medical director of Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network, highlighted the difficulties in tracking evidence and action plans during a time when the trust had significant changes in leadership. But he said the committee felt cases where evidence could not be found or the standard of evidence gave concern, the recommendations could not be said to be met. Derek Richford, Harry’s grandfather, said on behalf of the family: “We are saddened and shocked to find that over four years after the RCOG found fundamental systemic failings and made 23 recommendations, only two have been completed. It is not good enough for them to now say ‘leadership has changed’. The main board must take responsibility and be held to account.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 July 2020
  12. News Article
    Parents of babies who died at a hospital trust at the centre of a maternity inquiry say a police investigation has come "too late". West Mercia Police said it was looking at whether there was "evidence to support a criminal case" at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust. An independent review, contacted by more than 1,000 families, said it was working with police to identify relevant cases. "It's bittersweet," one mother said. "It's come too late for my daughter, she should still be here," said Tasha Turner, whose baby, Esmai, died four days after she was born at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in 2013. Ms Turner's case is part of the Ockenden Review, an independent investigation into avoidable baby deaths at the trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal. LaKamaljit Uppal, 50, from Telford, who is also part of the review following the death of her son Manpreet in April 2003 at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said she hoped the police inquiry would bring some closure. "The trust put me through hell, someone should be held accountable," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 July 2020
  13. News Article
    A hospital trust under the spotlight over avoidable baby deaths provided inadequate antenatal care, with inexperienced junior midwives working alone and doctors not always available to assess high risk women, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found. The latest CQC report on maternity services at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust follows a report last month by the NHS Healthcare Services Investigation Branch on 24 maternity care investigations at the trust. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 28 May 2020
  14. News Article
    The coroner investigating the botched birth of a baby boy who died from hypoxia has strongly criticised the Healthcare Service Investigation Branch (HSIB) over its report on his death. Karen Henderson, who conducted the inquest into the death of baby Theo Young in May 2018 at East Surrey Hospital said that the HSIB had asked Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust not to undertake its own investigation, “effectively preventing the recognition of causes of concern and therefore being unable to undertake any immediate and necessary remedial action at the earliest opportunity to prevent future deaths.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 19 May 2020
  15. News Article
    Concerns for the wellbeing of babies born in lockdown are being raised, as parents struggle to access regular support services. England's children's commissioner is highlighting pressures facing mothers caring for babies without the usual family and state support networks. Playgroups are closed and health visitor "visits" are being carried out remotely in most cases. The NHS said adaptations had been made to keep new mothers and babies safe. The briefing paper from Anne Longfield's office says an estimated 76,000 babies will have been born in England under lockdown so far. But births are not being registered, because of temporary rules tied to the virus pandemic, so even basic information about new babies is not being gathered. At the same time, support services provided by health visitors and GPs are not readily accessible, with many taking place via phone and video calls or not at all. There are concerns many babies may have missed their developmental health checks, due in the first few weeks of life to pick up urgent developmental needs. "In some areas, the six-week GP baby check hasn't been available or parents haven't wanted to attend it due to a potential risk of infection," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 May 2020
  16. News Article
    Experts have raised fears that high-risk pregnancies may be missed due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a potential rise in stillbirths and neonatal deaths. During a session of Westminster’s Health and Social Care Committee, Gill Walton, the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said there was a “fear” among pregnant women presenting themselves to maternity services during the COVID-19 outbreak. Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the committee, said one of the most important elements of maternity safety was to identify higher-risk pregnancies early “so that interventions can be made to prevent stillbirths, complications, or even the death of a baby”. Mr Hunt added the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians, Dr Edward Morris, had told him he is “worried that some higher-risk pregnancies may be being missed” because of fewer face-to-face appointments and missed scans. Asked whether she shared that concern, Ms Walton told MPs: “I do share that concern. Some of that is related to the fear of the pregnant population and presenting to maternity services during the pandemic." "That fear then prevents them sometimes just picking up the phone to call their midwife to say that may be concerned about not feeling well, or that they’ve got reduced foetal movements.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 1 May 2020
  17. News Article
    A campaign to reduce stillbirths, brain injury, and avoidable deaths in babies has failed to have any effect in the past three years, findings from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists show. The president of the college, Edward Morris, has urged maternity units across the UK to learn from the latest report and act on its recommendations. “We owe it to each and every person affected to find out why these deaths and harms occur in order to prevent future cases where possible,” he said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 19 March 2020
  18. News Article
    The parents of a baby who nearly died after a series of failings during his birth said they were "heartbroken" mistakes continued to be made East Kent Hospitals told Harry Halligan's parents they would learn lessons from his delivery in 2012. But similar failings recently came to light after the death of Harry Richford in 2017 and the trust is now being probed over up to 15 baby deaths. The trust said it made "many changes to the maternity service" after 2012. Parents Dan and Alison Halligan, from New Romney, said watching news coverage of an inquest into Harry Richford's death earlier this year, which laid bare the failings, had brought back stressful memories. Mr Halligan said the trust "clearly haven't learned from [the] mistakes" made in his son's care, adding that it was "heartbreaking" to see "the same mistakes being repeated". Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 March 2020
  19. News Article
    As part of the NHS Digital Child Health programme, Personal Child Health Records or “Redbook” will receive a digital makeover. NHS Digital has considered the limitations of the physical Redbook and decided that digitalisation is the way forward for parents to easily access important health and development information. Nurturey has been evolving its product to align with NHS' Digital Child Health programme. It aims to be an app that can make the digital Redbook vision a reality and currently in the process of completing all the necessary integrations and assurances. It is hoped that by using smart digital records, parents will be more aware of their child’s health information like weight, dental records, appointments and other developmental milestones. Tushar Srivastava, Founder and CEO of Nurturey, said: “Imagine receiving your child's immunisation alert/notification on the phone, clicking on it to book the immunisation appointment with the GP, and then being able to see all relevant immunisations details on the app itself. As a parent myself, I see the huge benefit of being able to manage my child’s health on my fingertips. We are working hard to deliver such powerful features to parents by this summer.” Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 5 February 2020
  20. News Article
    A three-month-old boy died from sepsis after ‘gross failures’ by medics to give him antibiotics until it was too late, an inquest ruled. Lewys Crawford died a day after he was admitted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff with a high temperature last March. Jurors at Pontypridd Coroner’s Court said the failure of doctors to treat his illness with antibiotics until seven hours after his arrival had ‘significantly contributed’ to his death. They found the little boy died from natural causes contributed to by neglect in his care. Read full story Source: The Metro, 15 February 2020
  21. News Article
    The government has announced an independent review into maternity services at an NHS trust where a number of babies have died. “Immediate actions” have also been promised and an independent clinical team has been placed “at the heart” of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust. It comes amid reports that at least seven preventable baby deaths may have occurred at the trust since 2016, including that of Harry Richford. Harry died seven days after his emergency delivery in a “wholly avoidable” tragedy, contributed to by neglect, in November 2017, an inquest found. Speaking in the House of Commons, the health minister Nadine Dorries confirmed the independent review would be carried out by Dr Bill Kirkup, who led the investigation into serious maternity failings at Morecambe Bay. It will look at preventable and avoidable deaths of newborns to ensure the trust learns lessons from each case and will put in place appropriate processes to safeguard families. The review is expected to begin shortly and work in partnership with affected families. Read full story Source: 13 February 2020
  22. News Article
    A baby with a serious heart condition has died after she received an infection from mould in a Seattle hospital's operating room, her mother says. Elizabeth Hutt was born with a heart condition that she battled for the entirety of her six-month-long life. The young child underwent three open heart surgeries, and after the third one is when it's believed she contracted an Aspergillus mould infection in the hospital's operating room. The mould in the hospital's operating rooms was first detected in November, around the same time as the child's third surgery. It was later determined the infection was contracted from the mould discovered in three of the 14 operating rooms at the hospital in November. The mould came from the hospital's air-handling units in the operating rooms, and 14 patients have developed infections from the mould since 2001, the hospital revealed. Seven of those 14 children have since died from their infections. Elizabeth's parents have joined a class action suit against Seattle Children's Hospital in January, which alleges facility managers knew about the mould since 2005 and failed to fix the problem. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 February 2020
  23. News Article
    The boss of an NHS trust at the centre of concerns about preventable baby deaths has claimed the scale of the failings is not clearly defined. Susan Acott, Chief Executive of East Kent Hospitals Trust, said there had only been "six or seven" avoidable deaths at the trust since 2011. However, the BBC revealed on Monday that the trust previously accepted responsibility for at least 10. Ms Acott said some of the baby deaths were "not as clear-cut". A series of failings came to light during the inquest of Harry Richford who died seven days after his birth at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate in November 2017. A coroner ruled Harry's death was "wholly avoidable" and was contributed to by hospital neglect. Ms Acott added she had not read a key report from 2015 drawing attention to maternity problems at the trust until December 2019. Ms Acott claims that from 2011 to 2020 there were "about six or seven" baby deaths that were viewed as preventable. She says the other deaths were being investigated adding "these things aren't always black and white". Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 February 2020
  24. News Article
    A BBC News investigation has uncovered more preventable baby deaths at an NHS trust that has already been criticised for its maternity services. Four families said their babies would have survived had East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust provided better care. The NHS's Healthcare Safety Branch is investigating 25 maternity cases at the hospitals in Margate and Ashford. The trust has apologised for the care provided in two of the cases and said they were investigating a third. It has denied any wrongdoing in the fourth case. The government is due to receive the Healthcare Safety Branch's report into the 25 cases later, as well as a Care Quality Commission report from an inspection carried out in January. Last month, the BBC discovered at least seven preventable deaths may have occurred at the trust since 2016. Four further families have now spoken out, saying their babies would not have died if medics had provided better care. In two of the cases, the mothers said the actions of the trust left them feeling they were to blame for their babies' deaths. In a statement, East Kent Hospitals Trust it had set up a board sub-committee "to ensure we are complying with national safety standards and ensure we are implementing the coroner's recommendations fully and swiftly". "We are deeply saddened by the stories of families who have suffered the death of a much-loved baby, and we are extremely sorry for their loss," it added. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020
  25. News Article
    Harry Richford's death underlines the need for the health secretary to bring back the national maternity safety training fund – and there are other issues that require urgent attention – The Independent reports. Harry Richford had not even been born before the NHS failed him. An inquest has concluded he was neglected by East Kent University Hospitals Trust in yet another maternity scandal to rock the NHS. His parents and grandparents have fought a tireless campaign against a wall of obfuscation and indifference from the NHS. In their pursuit of the truth they have exposed a maternity service that did not just fail Harry, but may have failed dozens of other families. As with the family of baby Kate Stanton-Davies at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, or Joshua Titcombe at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust, it has taken a family rather than the system to expose what was going wrong. It is known that there are about 1,000 cases a year of safety incidents in the NHS across England, including baby deaths, stillbirths and children left brain damaged by mistakes. Last week, the charity Baby Lifeline, joined The Independent to call on the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to reinstate the axed maternity safety training fund. This small fund was used to train maternity staff across the country. Despite being shown to be effective, it was inexplicably scrapped after just one year. There are other issues that also need urgent attention. The inquest into Harry’s death, which concluded on Friday, lasted for almost three weeks. Without pro bono lawyers from Advocate, Brick Court Chambers and Arnold & Porter law firm, the family would have faced an uphill struggle. At present, families are not automatically entitled to legal aid at an inquest, yet the NHS employs its own army of lawyers who attend many inquests and can overwhelm bereaved families in a legal battle they are ill-equipped to fight. Even the chief coroner, Mark Lucraft QC, has called for this inequality of legal backing to end, but the government has yet to take action. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 January 2020
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