
Mother and baby deaths at Leeds hospitals could have been avoided
The deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers at Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust could have been avoided, it has emerged.
A Freedom of Information Act request for information showed trust review groups reported concerns over each of the deaths which occurred between January 2019 and July 2024.
The findings, revealed by the BBC, came to light after whistleblowers working within the trust and bereaved parents highlighted serious concerns about the trust’s maternity units at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital.
It is yet another maternity scandal which, depressingly, comes as no real surprise anymore. This one follows on the heels of scandals at NHS Trusts in Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, Nottingham and East Kent. The picture nationally is more worrying than ever, showing a marked and concerning lack of progress in improving maternity standards.
There continues to be both a staffing and recruitment crisis in the sector, with serious shortages of obstetricians and midwives.
Consequently, existing staff are too thinly spread, burned out and struggling to provide both competent and compassionate care whilst training and supervision are also badly impacted.
Such conditions result in experienced people leaving the sector, causing the conditions for those remaining to become even worse, which in turn only serves to deter new talent from entering.
One story, which was the subject of an inquest in 2023, involved a baby who tragically died because of “a number of gross failures of the most basic nature”.
As evidenced by this case, there appears to be a frustrating inability to learn from such serious failures, possibly due to a culture of management sweeping failures under the carpet, rather than addressing them head on with targeted training and better supervision.
There also sadly remains a deep-rooted fear associated with staff “whistleblowing”, namely the act of speaking out openly and honestly about concerns in patient care.
This is largely because of the unacceptable way in which whistleblowers are continued to be treated. Even the term “whistleblowing” has negative connotations, when in fact the intention behind it is honourable, namely to highlight concerns to improve the standard of care for patients.
The stories retold today by the BBC are heartbreaking, demonstrating the devasting impact of poor maternity care.
Let’s hope this time things will improve, but, regrettably there doesn’t appear to be much cause for optimism.