# Daily Mail: 100's of babies dying unnecessarily because hospital staff aren't tr



## urbangirl (Jul 28, 2010)

..aren't trained to use equipment.
link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392033/Hundreds-babies-dying-unnecessarily-hospital-staff-arent-trained-use-equipment.html

It is referring to unborn babies as well, specifically from fetal distress. It says hospital staff go on courses but still don't really know how to, or just don't, intervene correctly when equipment shows a baby is suffering from fetal distress, which can cause death and brain damage, due to lack of oxygen supply in the womb (such as when the umbilical cord gets wrapped around the baby's neck). Truly horrifying that there are so many preventable deaths. Also says one of the main problems is the 9-5 availability of trained consultants vs the tendency for babies to arrive when they want - you'd have thought they'd have worked out the solution to that one long ago.

/links


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## joeyrella (May 13, 2009)

Appalling, but in my experience not entirely surprising unfortunately.  I laboured over night and at one point there were concerns about the baby, but the staff were really reluctant to do anything until more senior staff could be paged to come and have a look.  There was a lot of dithering, thank goodness my baby wasn't harmed in that time.


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## mungoadams (May 20, 2011)

that is scarey. glad to hear there was no long term effects joeyrella 

is the problem with consultants partly because of the working time directive? could be wrong. certainly should be possible to work around it you'd think!

i dont get how its acceptable for any patient in need of medical attention from a consultant/registrar to have to wait overnight. my father in law, v vulnerable with permanent severe brain damage, was denied fluids and anti seizure drugs for more than 24 hours over a weekend, as he was nil by mouth and they couldnt get someone to sign the paper work for a new canula to be inserted.


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