‘Worrying’ number of baby deaths at Homerton Maternity Unit revealed

‘Worrying trend’: a high number of baby deaths have been recorded at the Homerton’s maternity unit. Photograph: David Holt

A “worrying” number of baby deaths at Homerton Hospital’s maternity unit has been revealed.

A total of 51 babies were stillborn last year, with nine more dying in the neonatal period (up to 28 days-old) whilst at Homerton Hospital, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has uncovered.

“This cannot go on,” said healthcare campaigner Christine Papalabropoulos, who submitted the FoI request.

“We need to move fast to make the public aware how unsafe Homerton Maternity Unit is. It is an extremely important local issue,” she said.

Ms Papalabropoulos is also concerned by the trend continuing into this year. By 18 January, the hospital had already recorded seven stillbirths.

“This worries me tremendously,” said Ms Papalabropoulos. “If there have already been at least seven in less than three weeks, that sets a worrying trend for what will happen during the rest of the year.”

The revelation comes weeks after the news that 12 women with links to the Homerton maternity unit had died since 2006.

“It’s not just about the mothers now,” said Ms Papalabropoulos. “Mothers and babies are dying.”

Risks

Stillbirth and neonatal deaths at Homerton exceed the average for England, according to reports published in December 2015 by MBRRACE-UK, (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries), a research unit run by Oxford University.

Per 1,000 births, there were 4.74 stillbirths at Homerton Hospital compared to 4.26 nationally in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available.

There were also two neonatal deaths in every 1,000 births at Homerton compared to 1.83 nationally. The figures for the Trust are adjusted to take into account the mother’s age, deprivation and other various possible risk factors.

The report gave Homerton a poor ‘amber’ rating in its colour-coded system, with green being the best, followed by yellow, then amber, and red being the worst.

Amber indicates Homerton’s perinatal mortality rate (referring to the period around the time of birth) was “up to 10 per cent higher than the average” for similar hospitals that also have a ‘level 3’ neonatal intensive care unit.

However Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust says its maternity department and paediatric service are “highly regarded for their life-saving care of high risk mothers and babies”.

Dr Martin Kuper, Medical Director of the Trust, said: “Over half the women who use our maternity service are rated as being high risk either because of age, chronic illnesses and conditions such as diabetes and HIV, or obesity – or often several of these risks. These are the main risks leading to stillbirths or birth complications.

“We also have high-risk mothers brought to us from other parts of South East England because of our specialist neonatal intensive care unit, meaning we are dealing with some very sick babies, many of whom are born prematurely.”

This article was update at 12:45pm on Thursday 10 March 2016 with clarification about MBRRACE’s figures and ‘amber’ rating – Ed.