The BBC today issued reports highlighting concerns around the standard of two maternity services: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Mid & South Essex NHS Trust.

The reports state the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the past five years in Leeds might have been preventable. The Trust’s maternity units are at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital.

Families are calling for an independent review into Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, specifically for an independent, judge-led enquiry to help improve maternity safety.

A freedom of information request obtained by the BBC in relation to the care by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust revealed at least 56 cases from January 2019 to July 2024 where there had been a combination of stillbirths and neonatal deaths. In each case, the Trust’s review had identified care outcomes which might have made a difference to the outcome for babies. Two potentially preventable maternity deaths were also recorded.

Today’s news came at the same time as a separate story by the BBC, noting that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the maternity services at hospitals in Basildon and Southend-on-Sea, Essex, as “requires improvement”. The CQC report commented that “patients’ needs could not always be identified and met quickly due to gaps in staffing levels”.

Commentary

Anita Jewitt, medical negligence solicitor and Head of the Clinical Negligence department at Stewarts, comments:

“It is concerning to read two reports on the same day, each raising concerns with two different Trusts at different ends of the country. The details which sit behind each and every tragic death will be subject to their own specific facts. However, the overall themes we keep seeing are failures in maternity care and an apparent failure to listen to patients and to learn from mistakes.

To take one specific aspect of these reports, staff in Basildon said there was ‘not always enough fetal monitoring equipment to keep patients and their babies safe.’ A common theme we sadly see running through our cases on behalf of children who have sustained a brain injury at birth is a failure to properly monitor fetal heart rates.

Today’s reports come off the back of a CQC report issued in September 2024, calling for action now to avoid poor care and preventable harm being “normalised”. 131 maternity units were inspected; 48% were rated as requires improvement or inadequate. The CQC said they found significant variation in the way trusts operated in key areas, such as learning from incidents and assessing women at triage to identify any risks.”