Baby deaths: Report looks into reasons why Shropshire has above average neo-natal mortality rates

But one thing they have concluded is that there is nothing systemic in the care provided by the Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals Trust that can explain why neo-natal mortality figures are above average.

Leaders at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust (SaTH) called in the Royal College of Physicians to review neonatal mortality in from 2021 to 2022 as a follow up to the Ockenden Review of Maternity Services. The report was received earlier this year but has just been published this week.

Some 18 families touched by neo-natal deaths have had their cases reviewed, providing insights into standards of care at SaTH. Reviewers found examples of excellent care and poor care but nothing overall that can explain the above average mortality rates among neo-natal babies.

Dr John Jones, Executive Medical Director for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “Our neonatal teams care for hundreds of very unwell babies through the early critical days of their lives.

“We owe it to them and their families to give the best care. We wanted to understand how our services could be improved, and anything we could do to reduce the above-average perinatal mortality rates in the trust and across the West Midlands.

“The review team did not identify evidence to indicate that the quality of care provided to babies by the neonatal service was substandard or directly contributing to the unit's outlier status in terms of perinatal mortality. 

“However, although they described examples of good care, there were also examples of poor care that should have been significantly better. We apologise wholeheartedly for this.

“We have written to each of the 18 families whose baby or babies’ care was reviewed and have begun meeting with them, in person, to answer any questions and to offer support.