Further review into Shropshire maternity care

The Health Secretary ordered the initial review after a cluster of baby deaths, including one-day-old Pippa Griffiths

Further Shropshire families are to have their maternity care reviewed.

A total of 40 families came forward with questions about their care after the Secretary of State called for an independent review into a cluster of deaths at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).

Of these, 12 have been found to need further examination and will have a separate independent review.

The report will be published later this year, the trust said.

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Jeremy Hunt ordered NHS Improvement to conduct the initial review following seven avoidable deaths at the trust between September 2014 and May 2016.

Failures to properly monitor and analyse the foetal heart rate - CTG traces - contributed to five of the deaths.

Among those was Pippa Griffiths, her inquest concluded the one-day old's death, after she was born at home, could have been prevented if an infection had been spotted earlier.

Following the announcement of the investigation in April 2017, 16 families came forward questions about their care, with a further 24 cases put forward for review by the independent midwife leading the NHSI review.

These cases, which cover a 19-year period, were reviewed by a separate group which has found 12 should be examined again by independent clinical experts, including eight cases which had been subject to review previously.

Of the remaining cases, five were unidentifiable from the information provided so no further action could be taken, while letters were sent to a further 19 families, which said there were no signs of failures in care.

Jo Banks, Women and Children's Care Group Director at SaTH, said: "We are determined to approach all such cases in an open, transparent way and to learn from these reviews. We are committed to making improvements rapidly and will share our learning from these cases later this year."