The article raises valid points, but unfortunately serves more to highlight media strain theory than anything objective regarding the NHS. Just look at the ambiguous language.
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63 births in ambulances and 608 in transit to hospitals;
Naughty Mum, couldn't she just hold it? Women
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117 births in A&E departments
What proportion of these were direct admittances to A&E? How many of these mothers were hurt in an accident? Did this induce on Labour? How many of these were emergency c-sections?
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399 in parts of maternity units other than labour beds
How many of these were birthing pool deliveries, etc.? Where where they delivered then? I'm going to assume it was the floor (which is what they want you to think), as if that was the case the Mary Whitehouse brigade at the Mail would have postered it all over the story.
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115 births on other hospital wards and 36 in other unspecified areas including corridors;
What other wards? Was mother in intensive care when the infant was delivered?
Total, unspecific drivel aimed at the type of idiot who buys newpapers (particularly but not limited to tabloids) and who has no analytical skills what so ever.
There are in excess of 700,000 births per annum in the UK. It stands to good reason, that as all of these involve humans, there will be errors. 4000 already sounds fairly low; as I have demonstrated, the real figure will be a good way below 4000. But then the Mail know this, which is why they are so non-committal with their figures. Insinuation and inference are far effective at shifting **** to the chattering classes than actual, credible intelligence.
There is only one important part of the entire article:
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The rise in the number of births in other than a designated labour bed is a concern. We would want to see the detail behind these figures to look at why this is happening.
'There is no doubt that maternity services are stretched, and that midwives are working harder and harder to provide good quality care. However, we know the Government is putting more money into the service.
'The key now is to make sure this money is spent by the people controlling the purse strings at a local level.'
That's it. That's the relevant public service information. But hell, that ain't going to sell newspapers.