NHS maternity unit standards ‘unacceptable’

A BRITISH NHS maternity unit, which hit the headlines after a series of high-profile baby deaths, suffered from “unacceptable” professional relationships between consultants, and an acute shortage of midwives, a government report said yesterday.

The Commission for Health Improvement launched an investigation, in June of last year, into maternity services at Ashford and St Peter's Hospital's NHS Trust, which has sites in Surrey, following what it described as a "number of serious incidents".

These "incidents" culminated when a man whose partner and baby died at the unit, in 2000, had another child die there when his new partner underwent a forceps delivery.