A plan to revolutionise infant care and stop a projected 34 baby deaths a year in Birmingham and the Black Country has today been unveiled.
Measures, such as the life-saving baby boxes pioneered in Finland and recently introduced at City Hospital, will be rolled out to cut the high level of infant mortality in the region.
Further measures include investing in GP services to make another 25,000 appointments available, many on the same day, to ease the pressures on expensive accident and emergency departments.
GPs will also be embedded in A&E units to reduce waiting times and free up emergency teams.
The sustainability and transformation plan, or STP, has been drawn up by hospitals, councils and health service providers across the Black Country and west Birmingham, including City, Sandwell, Walsall Manor and Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital, is designed to not only to improve access to services but cut costs – potentially saving £413 million a year by 2021.