NHS must learn lessons

Confidence in the care provided by the Wakefield-based Mid Yorkshire trust has already been knocked by several cases where services fell seriously short.

The trust was rightly criticised following the death last year of a baby at Dewsbury and District Hospital, who was born some 61 hours after his mother’s waters broke, because of a shortage of midwives and beds.

Three years previously a couple were promised that lessons had been learned from the stillbirth of a baby at Pontefract General Infirmary, mainly because of serious lapses in heart monitoring. Now it has emerged that a further series of serious incidents took place in the maternity unit at Dewsbury over the winter months, leading in some cases to the tragic deaths of babies.

Health services typically claim that they learn from tragedies – and yet similar problems have emerged again and again.

Of course, mistakes cannot be eradicated entirely from any healthcare system, because of the uncertainties inherent in it. Patients should be entitled to know, however, that they are receiving the best care possible and this must include learning from previous errors, which is vital in every walk of life.

To restore confidence in its maternity services Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust needs to make public what has gone wrong and what is being done to prevent any further tragedies occurring. Those families which have suffered as a result of hospital mistakes deserve nothing less than full disclosure.

For the future, it must be for regulators to vigorously ensure measures have been put in place to deliver safe care. If that involves formal intervention, then they should not hesitate to act.