Babies in Midlands and North 'more likely to die around b...

What’s Happening

Not gonna lie, A study found the 10 consistently worst-performing centres were all in the Midlands and North of England.

Babies in Midlands and North more likely to die around birth 4 days ago Save Adam Eley BBC News Save Babies in the Midlands and North of England are more likely to die before, during or shortly after birth than those in the South, a new study has found. Researchers analysed data from 121 maternity services in England to see which centres repeatedly produced outcomes better or worse than the average between 2013 and 2022. (let that sink in)

The 10 worst-performing centres were in the Midlands and North of England, and the 15 best-performing in the South.

The Details

A review into maternity care is ongoing, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting saying “systemic failures causing preventable tragedies cannot be ignored”. The study, the University of Calgary and published in the Journal of Public Health, was based on death surveillance reports MBRRACE-UK, which looks at late fetal losses, stillbirths and neonatal deaths in the UK.

It found that three of the 121 Trusts that report figures - Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – had a higher-than-average rate of death in each of the 10 years it looked at, compared to services of comparable size. Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, rn the subject of an ongoing police investigation, had worse-than-average rates in nine of the 10 years.

Why This Matters

In comparison, three Trusts were found to have lower-than-average death rates in each of the 10 years analysed - Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The data has been adjusted for factors known to affect mortality rates, including socio-economic deprivation, ethnicity and the gestational age at birth.

This is the kind of health news that affects everyday decisions.