The chairman of the district's community health council (CHC) has welcomed a government investigation into the number of baby deaths at St Peter's Hospital.

North West Surrey CHC's newly-appointed chairman, Edward Glynn, said the investigation by the government's health watchdog, the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), would address the concerns the watchdog has had about the deaths at the maternity unit for the past five years.

Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals Trust has appealed for CHI inspectors to get to the bottom of the problems the unit faces with rising mortality rates and its chronic failure to recruit midwives.

And Mr Glynn believes the investigation is long overdue: "The CHC has had concerns for a number of years about the midwifery staffing levels within the unit and the consequent pressure on services.

"There have also been a number of well publicised incidents which have concerned the local community.

"Any steps which will help to strengthen public confidence in the Unit and help to recruit and retain more trained midwives must be welcomed."

The Trust called in the CHI to investigate the unit and its chronic difficulties in recruiting midwives at the beginning of June.

Midwives in the unit, which handles 3,700 births a year, were recently found to be delivering an average of 49 babies a year, contravening guidelines set out by the Royal College of Midwives that no midwife should deliver more than 35 a year, with 40 indicating severe staff shortages.

The region's maternity services were originally based at Ashford Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton until 1999, when the Town Lane hospital's unit, along with intensive care and severe accident capabilities were transferred to St Peter's. The maternity unit's patient intake also increased two years ago with the closure of Queen Mary's.

July 18, 2002 15:00