A premature baby was left to die alone in a sluice room by hospital staff, a report has revealed.
An NHS Trust’s review of Royal Oldham and North Manchester General hospitals found several other “unacceptable situations” where babies and mothers suffered due to bad medical decisions and lack of facilities.
This included a mother misdiagnosed as having mental health issues who eventually died from a “catastrophic haemorrhage”.
The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said it had apologised to the families involved for any failings.
In the most harrowing incident, a baby born at 22 weeks and six days – just before the legal age of viability – was not left with her mother as she died.
Instead, hospital staff “placed her in a Moses basket and left her in the sluice room to die alone.”
The sluice room is where items such as incontinence pads and bedpans and disposed of and where sick bowls are cleaned and disinfected to be reused.
The report, initially internal-only until uncovered by the Manchester Evening News, also condemned staff attitudes.
It found mothers suffered “unacceptable risk” and that long-term failings led to “high levels of harm for babies”.
Professor Matthew Makin, the trust’s medical director, said considerable work has been done since the report to improve services.
He added: “These cases were, like all reported incidents, investigated thoroughly at the time and the families have been contacted and met by the trust’s head of midwifery to apologise for any failings in care and to discuss the changes that have been made.”
