Community midwives who deliver sickly babies will be given the option to call 999 after the tragic death of a newborn at an Angus unit.
Nevaeh Stewart died less than four hours after she was born in a birthing pool at Montrose Community Midwifery Unit (CMU) in 2012.
A fatal accident inquiry into her death heard neonatal transport teams could take “a number of hours” to attend “low-risk” deliveries and take them to Ninewells Hospital.
But NHS Tayside is introducing an option where midwives and clinicians “will physically dial 999” if they feel something has gone wrong, on the back of “public pressure” for change.
Nevaeh suffered a “sudden collapse” after birth but the neonatal transport team routed from Ninewells at 5.40am did not arrive until 7.15am.
The inquiry at Forfar Sheriff Court previously heard evidence from Ninewells head paediatrician Peter Fowlie, who said health boards do not have the resources to ensure a “flying squad” of medics in an emergency after a low-risk delivery, and midwives must wait for staff cover at the neonatal unit before they could be dispatched.
Within the next six weeks, NHS Tayside will introduce a 999 option for midwives and clinicians to get sick babies from Arbroath, Montrose and Perth CMUs to the Dundee neonatal unit.
Dr Fowlie said the option arose “largely out of perceived public pressure and because the model is accepted in England.”
He said the number of staff in England was similar to that in health boards in Scotland.
And Dr Tom Turner, the former clinical director of Queen Mother’s Maternity Hospital in Glasgow, said the 999 practice would update a “50-year” Scotland-wide preference to send medical staff to CMUs.
The board’s head of midwifery Justine Craig said she is “much happier” that professionals will be able to call on a blue-light ambulance when low-risk pregnancies encounter problems at delivery in CMUs.
The health board previously did not have any harnesses to secure small babies in the back of its existing, non-neonatal ambulance fleet, but has recently purchased these for immediate use.
The fatal accident inquiry previously heard the risk of transporting an unsecured incubator, with medical staff in an ambulance that was going at emergency speed was “too great” for babies and staff.
The inquiry, before Sheriff Pino Di Emidio, is set to reconvene next month.
