Babies are at risk of dying from a common treatable infection because NHS staff on maternity wards are not following national guidance and are short-staffed and overworked, an investigation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), a national safety watchdog, has warned.
The Independent notes that the watchdog warns that NHS staff on maternity wards can face conflicting advice on treating women who are positive for a group B streptococcus (GBS) infection. Even in cases where mothers were known to be positive for GBS infection, this wasn’t shared with the mother or noted in the record, resulting in the standard care and antibiotics not being provided. HSIB said there were inconsistencies between national guidance produced by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2017 and local rules that aimed to keep women out of hospital until they are in established labour.
Full story in The Independent, 19 July 2020