Following publication of today’s investigation by the BBC, which found that the deaths of at least 56 babies at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust may have been prevented, Kath Abrahams, Chief Executive of Tommy’s, said:
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the findings reported from Leeds. It is heartbreaking to learn once again that so many families face a lifetime of loss that might have been prevented with better care.
“Leeds is the latest in a series of NHS Trusts where standards of maternity and neonatal care have been either questioned or found inadequate. We urgently need a new national policy approach to improving the safety and quality of these services.
“At its heart must be an unshakeable commitment to ending the inequities that put some babies at higher risk of stillbirth and neonatal death because of where they are born or the colour of their skin.”
The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show continuing and in some cases growing disparities in 2023 between rates of stillbirth among different groups.
Among those living in the most deprived areas of England, the stillbirth rate was 5.1 per 1,000, compared with 2.9 per 1,000 in the least deprived areas – a widening of the gap compared with 2022.
There was also a significant increase in the rate of stillbirth among babies of Asian ethnicity in England and Wales, from 4.7 per 1,000 in 2022 to 5.2 per 1,000 in 2023.
The stillbirth rate among Black babies in England and Wales was 6.3 stillbirths per 1,000 births - nearly twice as high as the rate among White babies.
