Charity Report Welcomed by Leading Manchester law Firm
20/04/2007
Manchester lawyer welcomes charity report on specialist nurses shortage in baby units
May I thank you for the way my accident claim has been handled, after my accident my confidence was very low indeed but the sympathetic handling of my case restored my confidence.
John, SheffieldLindsay Wise, a partner specialising in Medical Law and Patients Rights at
leading law firm Irwin Mitchell (incorporating Alexander Harris) in
Manchester, today responded to the report from the premature baby
charity Bliss by saying the current situation undoubtedly put babies at
more risk.
She said, "The cases we handle are often where
pregnancies are normal and the foetus is healthy up to labour and then
things go wrong, so you cannot always foresee that specialist care is
going to be required from a specific hospital.
The report from
Bliss, the premature baby charity says that at least 2,500 extra nurses
are needed, at a cost of £75 million, to ensure that NHS cots are
staffed adequately. The high number of babies born sick and premature -
80,000 a year - has been put down to the rise in older women having
babies, an increased reliance on IVF, and a high rate of teenage
pregnancies.
But, increasingly, mothers are being shunted around
the country in search of an intensive care cot staffed by a specialist
nurse, it says. Transfers between hospitals can involve journeys of up
to 480 miles. Neonatal units are understaffed by a third, yet there was
a "proven link" between staffing ratios and infant death rates.
Irwin
Mitchell's Lindsay Wise continued, "sometimes it may be possible for a
unit to prepare if a woman is a classic case for risk of premature
birth, but often it is not so clear cut. By proposing that specialist
services are only available in certain hospitals we are potentially
creating serious problems for the future.
"For example any delay
in transfer of a sick baby following birth will only add to that baby's
problems as will inappropriate staff/equipment, particularly if
specialist care is not available on site to provide the appropriate
treatment immediately prior and during transfer.
"Skilled
resuscitation of a sick baby can often be crucial in reducing the
period of brain damage which is why if it looks like a baby will be
born in a poor condition, standard practice dictates that a
paediatrician be present at birth to provide the skilled techniques
required."
Research from the University of Oxford's National
Perinatal Epidemiology Unit showed that if the recommended level of one
nurse to one baby in intensive care were reached, infant deaths could
be reduced by 48 per cent. Only 3.8 per cent currently achieve the
recommended staff ratios. The charity, established 27 years ago by a
group of concerned parents, said that while advances in technology had
resulted in more babies surviving, there were chronic shortages of
specialist nurses to provide the care.
"Institutionalised
inequalities are seen even at the point of birth," the report says. "In
adult and paediatric intensive care there is an accepted standard of at
least one nurse to one patient yet in neonatal care only three per cent
of neonatal units can provide this."
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