Problems Identified At Dewsbury and District Hospital

Medical law experts at Irwin Mitchell have joined calls for a report which recommends changes in care standards at Dewsbury and District Hospital to be published.

A new publication compiled by experts has reportedly called for improvements in efforts to follow guidelines and better monitoring of heart traces during labour at the hospital, which was recently the subject of an investigation that revealed failings in the care received by a young mother whose baby died after being starved of oxygen.

The inquiry was prompted by the ruling of coroner Prof Paul Marks who found that delays in inducing labour had "materially contributed" to the death of another baby at the same hospital who was less than an hour old.

It has been confirmed that the Care Quality Commission is examining the findings of the latest report, but there has been no indication on when they would be made public.
 
Now Sarah Coles, who specialises in birth injury and fatality cases and acts for a number of clients who have suffered problems at the Mid Yorkshire Trust, is calling for the findings of the report to be shared across the NHS to ensure that urgent lessons are learnt and future suffering prevented.
 
She said: "Whilst we are yet to see the findings of the investigation it is imperative that the problems identified, and the recommendations made for changes at the hospital are addressed urgently.
 
"It is hard enough to lose a loved one, especially a young baby, but to know that their death could have been prevented is heart breaking, and it is imperative that lessons are learnt at Dewsbury and across the NHS to ensure that no other families should have to suffer as these have going forward.

“This can only happen if the findings of this report are made public and the full extent of the issues is highlighted widely.”