29 April 2005
A team of surgeons and nurses has been drafted into a failing London maternity hospital by the government.
The team, led by obstetrics surgeon Professor Arul Kumaran, was ordered in by Health Secretary John Reid after an investigation uncovered 'serious system failures' at Northwick Park Hospital in Northwest London.
Ten mothers have died at the hospital in the past three years, where some 5,000 births are recorded each year. This is five times the national average. In the UK, an average of about one mother in 8,700 dies in childbirth.
Kumaran's team will seek to ensure clinical care and mothers' safety at the unit. Caesarean deliveries will now be carried out at the private Portland Hospital to relieve services at Northwick Park.
The Healthcare Commission has begun an investigation to see if the deaths were linked.
Problems had been brewing at Northwick Park for some time. Last August, the commission was invited by the trust to investigate maternity services at the hospital. At that time, nine deaths had occurred. But after it was told at the beginning of April of a tenth death, the commission carried out an unannounced spot check.
However, what the commission's inspectors saw was anything but reassuring. On April 21, commission chair Sir Ian Kennedy wrote to John Reid detailing 'significant failings' at the hospital.
These included, wrote Kennedy, 'insufficient staff to cope with the number of deliveries' and a failure to 'manage the care of women who are moving from low to high risk'.
The letter also said the commission was 'extremely concerned that the safety of women using maternity services
is currently compromised at the trust and that urgent action is needed in order to protect the safety of patients'.
It asked for extra clinicians and monitoring, something which Reid has agreed to do.
The health secretary said circumstances at the hospital were 'unacceptable' and needed to 'be addressed immediately'. A commission spokeswoman said it would present its final report to the health secretary in June.
The intervention was backed by the NHS Confederation. Its chief executive Dr Gill Morgan said: 'We are pleased to see that the system of inspection is working and that it has teeth.'
PFapr2005
