Written question asked by Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 November 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 20 November 2000. It was answered by Yvette Cooper (Labour) on Monday, 20 November 2000 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of maternity units in England have no (a) paediatric special care units on site and (b) doctors routinely attached to the units; how often patients have had to be transferred as emergency cases from these units before, during and after labour to hospitals with full maternity and paediatric facilities in the last 12 months; and what was the incidence of child mortality (i) in maternity units in (a) and (b) and (ii) in all hospitals in the last 12 months. - Inc table.

Answer: Sir Archie Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of maternity units in England have no (a) paediatric special care units on site and (b) doctors routinely attached to the units; how often patients have had to be transferred as emergency cases from these units before, during and after labour to hospitals with full maternity and paediatric facilities in the last 12 months; and what was the incidence of child mortality (i) in maternity units in (a) and (b) and (ii) in all hospitals in the last 12 months. [136821] Yvette Cooper: The information requested is not available. The latest data available for child mortality in all hospitals for 1998-99 is shown in the table. Count of deaths by age NHS hospitals, England 1998-99 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Age Died Stillbirth 0 2,852 2,249 1 184 -- 2 102 -- 3 62 -- 4 47 -- 5-9 170 -- 10-14 209 -- Age not known and others 262,002 -- Total 267,668 -- _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: Figures in this table have not yet been adjusted for shortfalls in data Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 357 c44W; 136821
Session: 1999-00
Subjects: Doctors Paediatrics Infant mortality Maternity services Mortality rates
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk