Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of still births; and what steps he is taking to improve communication between coroners and health professionals to inform such steps.
Ben Gummer
On 13 November 2015, the Government announced an ambitious campaign to halve the national rates of maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths and brain injuries in babies by 2030.
To help meet these aims trusts will receive a share of over £4 million of government investment to improve outcomes for women and babies. This includes:
– a £2.24 million fund to help trusts buy monitoring or training equipment to improve safety;
– a £500,000 investment in developing a new system for staff to review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death; and
– over £1 million investment to roll out training packages developed in agreement with expertise from the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, to make sure staff have the skills and confidence they need to deliver world-leading safe care.
Stillbirths are certified by a registered medical practitioner if they are present at the stillbirth or examined the baby, or in the absence of a registered medical practitioner, by a midwife. The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 provides the legal framework for the coroners role, which is limited to investigating the cause of deaths. Stillborn babies are not legally classified as having died because they did not show signs of independent life after birth.
Medical professionals will only refer a case to the senior Coroner if there is reason to suspect that a baby’s death may have been violent or unnatural. This includes babies who only briefly showed signs of independent life and/or where there is doubt about whether a child was born alive or was stillborn.
One of the powers available to a coroner is the power to make a Rule 43 report. If the coroner feels that the evidence gives rise to a concern that circumstances creating a risk of other deaths will occur or continue to exist, he/she may make a Rule 43 report, which is sent to the organisation that has responsibility for the circumstances. A recipient of a Rule 43 report must send a written response within 56 days. The response must give details of any action which has been or is proposed will be taken, or provide an explanation when no action is proposed.
