22nd April 2005
Infant Mortality Investigation: McNeil to
Update Health Working Group
MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan
McNeil, will update today’s Health Working Group meeting on the progress being
made in investigating Inverclyde’s baby death figures.
Speaking
ahead of the meeting, Mr McNeil said:
“I
have discussed the investigation with Dr Gillian Penney, a consultant
obstetrician and Medical Director of the Scottish Stillbirth and Infant Death
Survey, who has been drafted in to carry out a special review of perinatal
deaths in the area.
“She
has assured me that she will look specifically look at the deaths in Inverclyde
– not simply the Health Board area as a whole.
That is vital if any investigation is to get to the root of these
worrying figures.
“It
is similarly important that, in the interests of public confidence, that the
results of this investigation are published as soon as possible.
“I
will also be meeting the Deputy Health Minister, Rhona Brankin, early in the
week to discuss how the Executive is responding to the situation and will be in
talks with Health Board managers before the end of next week.”
Figures
published at the end of last month by the Registrar General showed that
Inverclyde has the highest rate of stillbirths and perinatal deaths in Scotland
and that the numbers are rising. Rates
of neonatal and infant deaths are now between double and two and a half times
the national average.
This
prompted Mr McNeil to demand an investigation by the Scottish Executive Health
Department and NHS Argyll and Clyde.
Following
this, it was announced that Dr Gillian Penney, Medical Director of the Scottish
Stillbirth and Infant Death Survey, had been drafted in to carry out a special,
detailed review of perinatal deaths in the area during 2004.
This is in addition to the clinical review which is routinely undertaken
of all perinatal deaths in Scotland.
At
the time, Mr McNeil warned that Dr Penney’s investigations must examine the
figures for Inverclyde specifically. Simply
looking at the Health Board area as a whole would, he said, “completely miss
the point”.
ENDS
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