The government have released details of an investigation in to University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust where the deaths of mothers and babies have been attributed to failings at the maternity units.
The investigation found several serious failings, labelling the maternity ward at Furness General Hospital as “dysfunctional” in this latest damning report in to NHS quality of care.
“Significantly below standard”
The report identified that staff were lacking in essential knowledge where guidelines were not followed and warning signs were either neglected or not even picked up on. Poor working relationships were identified between staff and risk assessments and care plans were not adhered to – leading to “inappropriate and unsafe care.”
The report has looked in to care as far back as 2004 and it is believed that more could have been done to have prevented the deaths of several mothers and babies.
The terrifying results
The investigation found 20 instances of significant failures at the maternity units that has:
- Contributed to the deaths of 3 mothers and 16 babies
- Concluded that different care in these cases would have expected to have prevented the deaths of one mother and 11 babies
Whilst mistakes of course will happen, and the NHS has a focus on reducing risks an limiting mistakes as much as possible, the report in to the failings at Furness have shown that there were instances of inadequate care leading to fatalities that were entirely preventable.
The report synopsis even states that: Midwifery care became strongly influenced by a small number of dominant midwives whose ‘over-zealous’ pursuit of natural childbirth ‘at any cost’ led at times to unsafe care.
Avoidable Tragedies
Our medical negligence lawyers have represented thousands of victims of clinical malpractice and we have extensive experience in resolving cases of infant and mother deaths that have been caused by medical failings. These kinds of cases are what make our jobs as lawyers often very hard – no one can ever take away the pain and loss where poor care has led to deaths.
In a statement from our team: this is a devastating example of poor care that was entirely preventable and inexcusable. We hope that the report will serve to prevent recurrence of such inadequate care, and help where possible to bring a close to the victims’ who have been denied knowledge of the truth for far too long.
