News of avoidable baby deaths at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, at the same time as a new Netflix documentary about baby killer Lucy Letby, raises disturbing questions about the safety of maternity units, writes Herald columnist Rosemary Goring.

There was a sense of shock but not of disbelief when a joint BBC/New Statesman investigation last week revealed evidence that at least 55 babies who died between 2019 and 2023 at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UH Sussex) “may have survived with better care”.

UH Sussex conducted 227 internal reviews into maternity deaths over this period, and concluded that in these 55 cases, different care “may” or was “likely” to have made a difference to the outcome. A review of nine stillbirths between 2021 and 2022 stated there were “missed opportunities in all cases”.

The quality of maternity care in the UK is a persistent problem, with serious failings and shortcomings disclosed with alarming frequency. Wes Streeting has said that “of all the issues that keep me up awake at night, maternity safety is top of the list”. Listening to the experience of parents whose babies have died in utero or shortly after birth  because of inadequate care is harrowing. It is a reminder of how very vulnerable babies and their mothers are around the time of birth and in the following days.

It is also a reminder of the case of Lucy Letby, the former neonatal nurse serving 15 whole-life sentences for the murder of seven infants and the attempted murder of seven others, while she was working at the Countess of Chester Hospital, between 2015-2016.

Could baby-killer nurse Lucy Letby be innocent after all?

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