Criticism into how deaths of babies and those with brain injuries are investigated
- Jun 10, 2016
- EmmaArnold
Local investigations into the deaths of babies and those born with severe brain injuries are not good enough, according to a new report.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), a medical charity, has published their first annual report into the issue with an improvement programme: Each Baby Counts.
More comprehensive reviews into neonatal deaths, brain injuries and stillbirths are needed in order to ensure hospitals learn from their mistakes.
According to the report, each year between 500 and 800 babies in the UK die or are left with a severe brain injury to negligence during labour.
The RCOG believes that some of these tragedies were avoidable and is committed to reduce this death rate by half by 2020 through the Each Baby Counts project.
There were 800,000 babies born after 37 weeks of pregnancy in the UK in 2015 and, of those babies, 655 had severe brain injuries, there were 147 neonatal deaths and 119 stillbirths.
This data was gathered to identify the lessons which need to be learned in order to improve future care and the RCOG will then make recommendations on a national level to show the bigger picture of the issue.
Hannah Bottomley, clinical negligence solicitor at PotterReesDolan, said:
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is a difficult and emotional time and it can been seen that families are looking for someone to blame, however most families I deal with who have lost someone within the mist of medical treatment tell that all they really want is answers.
They want to know what went wrong, not so they can necessarily blame someone, but so they can understand what happened and try and move on with their lives.
Further findings from the report show nearly three quarters of the cases which were reviewed did not involve the parents of the baby in any meaningful way which has been described as 'unacceptable'.
You can watch the Each Baby Counts video here with a background to the project and what they aim to achieve.