Hospital baby deaths: "How can they sleep at night?"

An inquest concluded that Pippa Griffiths' could have survived if an infection had been spotted earlier. Credit: ITV News.

A mother who lost her baby a day after birth has reacted to a report in to maternity services at hospitals in Shropshire.

An inquest concluded that the death of Kayleigh Griffiths' daughter Pippa could have been prevented if an infection had been spotted earlier.

Speaking to ITV News Kayleigh said she could not understand why lessons had not been learnt following previous incidents within the trust.She added:

Earlier this year an inquest returned a narrative verdict over Pippa's death. Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust accepted she may have survived had the early signs of infection been spotted sooner.

It follows the publication of a report by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust into maternity services in Shropshire over the last 10 years which put forward a number of recommendations.

The report was prompted by the'avoidable' deaths of a number of babies after it emerged that there had been sixindependent inquiriesin to maternity services at the trust.

The recommendations for further improvements which have been made include:

  • One safety plan to be drawn up to ensure that all maternity staff understand their role in implementing preventative and reactive safety arrangements

  • Encouraging staff to take ownership of incidents and complaints

  • Exploring better ways of learning from incidents and errors

  • Strengthening the review process for guidelines and protocols to ensure they don’t go beyond their review date

  • Investigate individual stillbirth and neonatal deaths using a standardised process, advocating for families, involving parents and using independent multi-disciplinary peer-review.

The Trust says it is committed to implementing the recommendations: