Jeremy Hunt: Shropshire baby deaths to be investigated

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust will be asked to prove the deaths were properly looked into. He has also asked the trust to contact each family affected.

It comes amid claims of a 'cluster' of nine deaths between September 2014 and May 2016, of which seven were avoidable, according to inquests.

The Shropshire Star revealed last month that procedures had been changed at maternity units because of concerns over baby deaths. Trust chief executive Simon Wright said he was committed to ensuring improvements continue and that extra training had been given to midwives in foetal monitoring, an area that had been identified as a shortcoming.

It follows a damning report last year into why a baby died six hours after her birth. Kate Stanton-Davies died after delays transferring her from Ludlow Community Hospital to a doctor-led maternity unit in March 2009.

An independent review found the hospital trust 'abdicated its responsibility' in finding out why the baby died and 'failed to establish facts and accountability'.

A monitor used in hospitals, called a cardiotocograph or CTG, can give an indication of how the foetal heart rate is responding to stress caused by the mother's contractions. The technology has been in use for decades but errors can happen if the mother's heart-rate is mistaken for the child.

Hospital trust medical director Dr Edwin Borman, said death rates at the trust were no worse than anywhere else.

He said: "When I look at the perinatal mortality rate at our trust compared to the rest of the NHS, we are at an equivalent level to the rest of the country.

"I would acknowledge that in the case of foetal heart rate monitoring, we have identified a number of cases where learning has not been fully implemented.

"We've put systems in place to make improvements. Nationally there has been an initiative called Saving Babies Lives that recognises that throughout the NHS this is a challenge.

"We've been at the forefront of trying to bring in systems that will improve our ability diagnose when things go wrong."

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust delivers about 4,700 babies each year.

The future of maternity units are currently under review, with smaller units facing night-time closures.

Department of Health spokeswoman Felicity Cooke said: "Earlier this year, the Health Secretary asked NHS regulators to undertake an investigation at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust in light of disclosures that in a number of tragic cases standards of care fell far below those that parents would expect."