‘We won’t change back’ says Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust

Jan 7 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust insists Maisie Bates’ death could not have been prevented.

Bosses say services will not be changed back.

A spokeswoman said: “The death of baby Maisie was an unavoidable tragedy where distance was not a factor.

“It is almost six months since we reorganised our maternity services and through the hard work and commitment of staff we are already seeing the signs of what we set out to achieve – a higher quality service for the women of Calderdale and Huddersfield.

“Since reconfiguration we have significantly increased our senior medical cover on the labour ward, we have dedicated senior neo-natal cover looking after our smallest and sickest babies and emergency caesarean section and intervention rates are already improved by 3% from the same period in 2007.

“We are committed to making the Huddersfield Family Birth Centre a success – as it is proving to be with 427 babies born there to date – so that women with uncomplicated pregnancies will still be able to have their baby in Huddersfield if they wish.

“We will not be reverting to the former model of maternity services as we firmly believe this would be a retrograde step and we are committed to improving our maternity services even further within this model.”