Bereaved mums launch action group after failures at Leeds hospitals led to baby deaths
A group of bereaved parents have formed a campaign group in Leeds to raise awareness of hospital failings leading to baby deaths.
The Leeds Hospitals Maternity Family Support Group has been set up by Fiona Winser-Ramm and Lauren Caulfield, who both lost their daughters shortly after birth.
They are now wanting to hear from other families who have experienced baby loss or birth trauma at Leeds’ hospitals to “offer a safe space for families to find out more about what advice and support is available.”
It comes weeks after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) warned poor quality NHS maternity care will become “normalised” if action is not taken.
Leeds’ maternity services at both the General Infirmary (LGI) and St James’s were rated by the CQC as ‘good’ last year.
But according to law firm Irwin Mitchell, they are hearing from substantial numbers of families who have experienced poor care within Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Fiona Winser-Ramm’s daughter Aliona died less than half an hour after she was born in 2020. The Trust has since admitted liability and acknowledged “earlier intervention would have, on the balance of probabilities, resulted in a live birth,” after it was revealed concerns around Aliona’s heart rate had not been acted on.
Mrs Winser-Ramm said: “If the pain of trying to come to terms with Aliona’s death wasn’t bad enough, it then felt like we were left facing a complex system in an attempt to secure answers.
“We believe there needs to be an overhaul of the system. The CQC may say that maternity services in Leeds are good, however, we believe this doesn’t translate to good on the ground.”
Lauren Caulfield’s daughter Grace was stillborn in 2022. Medical staff then lost Ms Caulfield’s placenta, meaning vital tests to ascertain Grace’s cause of death could not be done.
A Health Safety Investigation Branch report found several care issues including Grace’s growth not being consistently monitored because of the use of different systems between Leeds and Bradford, where Ms Caulfield was also being treated.
Lauren Caulfield said: “The decision to agree to a post-mortem wasn’t easy and it now feels like we’ll never fully get to bottom of what happened to Grace and why because Leeds didn’t carry out all of the tests they should have.
“I can’t just sit back and potentially see others going through what we’ve had to.”
Magnus Harrison, Chief Medical Officer, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We extend our deepest sympathies to the parents who have lost their babies.
"We want our families to know that we are dedicated to patient safety, and whilst these instances fell below the standard of care we expect, we take every incident seriously and study them to reduce the risk of them happening again.”