Health bosses have launched an investigation after a pregnant woman lost her baby after being forced to wait two hours for an ambulance.
The unnamed Caerphilly woman was at the midwifery-led maternity unit at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr in Ystrad Mynach when she needed a transfer to Newport’s Royal Gwent for an emergency caesarean section.
She was eventually transferred to Newport where her baby died last week during an attempted forceps delivery.
Health Minister Lesley Griffiths has ordered an investigation after the case was raised during an assembly debate on Wednesday by Plaid Cymru AM Jocelyn Davies.
In the Senedd she said: “Minister, what is your reaction to the fact that a Caerphilly woman who needed an emergency caesarean section last week waited two hours for an ambulance to take her from Ystrad Mynach to the Royal Gwent Hospital, where her baby then died during an attempted forceps delivery?” she asked.
She added: “Will you ensure that the family’s wishes for a proper investigation are met? Will women have confidence in midwife-led centres if they have no confidence in an ambulance, should things go wrong?”
Mrs Griffiths replied: “I am aware of this very distressing case.
“I can assure you that I will be writing to Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board to ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted.”
The death comes after a review of the ambulance service in Wales was ordered by the Health Minister for its poor performance.
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan Health Board confirmed a joint investigation with the ambulance service is now under way.
He said: “Our thoughts are with the mother and her family at this extremely difficult time,” he said.
“A joint investigation is under way with the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust and it would be inappropriate to comment further until this has been completed.
“We will continue to meet with the family and provide any support they require.”
This is awful and an investigation is needed. But this does not happen all the time. We only hear about the bad things. I personally had a bad very bad experience when I lost my little boy still born in the Gwent, but the sad part was found out in the miners. I swore from that day thatI was going to have another baby and the sonographer was not scanning my next baby. I found out a year and a couple of months later that I was pregnant again. Still swore that she was not going to scan me. I let her and she was one of the most supportive People I met during my pregnancy. Fortnightly scans more if I wanted them and always reassuring. My family was my rock and so was she. But again I am sorry and my heart goes out to the family at this sad time. But you still never hear the good things.
Without knowing, nor wishing to comment on, the particulars of this case, it does highlight the shortcomings of Ystrad Fawr. A hospital replaced by a nurse led assessment centre cannot provide the level of treatment that is required in Caerffili and the Rhymney valley.
Many of us have been vocal on this issue since we found out that the "new hospital" was in fact an assessment centre. We desperately need a hospital whose staff includes doctors and a 24 hour accident & emergency unit.
The facilities and space in Ystrad Fawr are magnificent. To not fully utilise them by turning this building into a proper hospital is penny pinching of the worst kind; the kind that costs lives.
I raised this matter earlier with the Health Minister following contact with Wayne David and I from the family. I immediately raised the matter with the Ambulance Service and the Health Board. There is a Serious Incident Review underway and we need to wait for all the facts to become clear.
Real terrible tragedy. This is why we opted for the local major hospitals as opposed to midwife led.
I'm 29 weeks pregnant and had chosen to have my baby in ystrad after being reassured by the midwifery team if there are any complication I would be transport to the Gwent within 30 minutes. After hearing this devistating story i have loss total faith in the service.I will not be put myself or baby at this risk. It is such a failure of this system and drastic changes need to be made now! My heart goes out to the family.
Caerphilly miners had a maternity unit and a proper A&E, the new hospital has failed the people, that's the real story. The assembly and the health trust have played the people for fools , AMs need to put pressure on the health trust to get Dr led A&E and restore a maternity unit to Caerphilly.
Knowing an almost identical story to that of Tammy, above, and a similar set of after events, it is time that the Bevan Health Board got a grip, and I would remind all senior local elected politicians, Labour and Plaid Cymru, who may feel they may be able to make political capital out of these tragic events at the Ystrad Mynach facility, ( not suggesting they are currently doing so just warning that such actions would be inappropriate) it is of course perfectly appropriate and reasonable for people like our AM Jeff Cuthbert to do so because he has responsibilty to us to ensure that an acceptable level of health is provided, but I would remind them all that they lauded its facilities including its 24 hours minor injuries unit, and it`s " 21 st century facilities" as "second to none", there were other "political individuals" from both the Labour Party and Independant Councillors and many many members of the public who warned that it fell short of satisfactory in local health care provision.
It really is a very very sad, and tragic disgrace, for anyone, who attends any hospital for medical care, and who has to have trust in a system that appear to be flawed and broken however small those breaches and shortcomings turn out to be in the health care we all reasonably demand from the Health Service Providers, in this case, the Welsh Assembly, when it appears to have happened before, and, I know for a fact as I am involved in it, there is an ongoing legal case against the Bevan Health Board by a local Caerphilly based Couple, for almost exactly the same events which led to the tragic loss suffered by this unnamed Caerphilly Lady and by Tammy above. In each case the common denominator `appears` to be the absence of Qualified Doctors, locally on hand, to deal with issues raised by hard working and totally dedicated midwifery staff who have concerns which they cannot deal with alone.
The Ystrad Mynach facility is a nurse led cottage style hospital, and, IF WE THE PUBLIC ARE ACCEPTING OF THAT FACT, we cannot expect to make comparisons with more inclusive units like Newport and Cardiff, and that is the root of the problem, Doctors, Doctors Doctors. With the cuts in Welsh Assembly Budgets we can expect to see more avoidable incidents happening unless someone really does get a grip.
The only proper A and E near Caerffili is, and was, at Univ Hosp. There they have a full load of docs, not just the one or two what Miners had.
Where could you have a new hospital in Caerphilly?, the people who closed the Miners should be ashamed of themselves.
It appears that one of the above contributors has forgotten, or never knew at all, that the `Miners` was a Doctor led facility before it was replaced by the Ystrad Mynach Cottage Hospital, therefore `downgrading` the Ysrad Mynach replacement facility rating in the Hospital tables of health care provision.
It also needs to be said, that so far as it can be judged in such a short operating time span, the new facility probably does what it actually does, i.e. provide nurse led facilities, quite well, but, on this point the Jury is out.
Being a cynic by disposition, I think the Ystrad Mynach Hospital is a small part of a plan to destroy the Health Service in Wales. The emerging facts over the "revised" report on the Betsi Cadwalader trust in North Wales sees to show our health service in ot safe in their hands be they Labour or Tory, remember Ystard Mynach was Labour idea.
John Owen is correct.
But he also conveniently forgets the fact that the Plaid Cymru leader and all his colleagues on the Caerphilly council at the time of the opening of the hospital, lauded its, planning, its construction, and its ` wonderful` 21st century facility in replacing `The Minors` hospital.
Check the Caerphilly Observer site for those comments.
So come off it John, `part of the story` makes a totally discredited and distorted and subjective political point.
Yes, I know they did but they werent behind the instigation,planning and development of the scheme, that was, as they say in America, "not on their watch", it was done before they came to power on the Council. Not being a member of any party, I cant see how my comments can be seen as distorted and subjective. The Labour Party had had long term plans from the 70s, for a new hospital near Maesycwwmer, which is always a vote winner, who is against hospitals. We were not given the whole story about Ystrad until it was too late, and, to misquote Max Boyce, the Miners Hospital is another executive housing estate now, plus of course an excuse for coffee mornings and jumble sales.
This is a shocking story and even nearly 1 year on, I feel that there is no change in this hospital! I have had to visit the hospital two times in the past week. The service is disgusting here! I have been sat in this waiting room for just over 4 hours with hardly any person being cslled. I am having to witness the doctors and nurses gathered around a computer giggling over what I guess is pictures on a nurses phone. I think this is disgusting when there is people waiting to be seen. This was probably the story with this poor mother and her un born child. The staff was to busy on Facebook!
My husband was hit off his bike last month and in a lot of pain. We sat at the "minor injuries" dept for over 3 hours only to be told they couldn't do anything he would need to go to Newport. We were told they would honour the time we had waited and there for wouldn't have to wait long. After another 6 hour wait, as they had one doctor between two departments, he was eventually seen and given pain relief. The people we met were all very nice and I suppose this is the reality of their jobs and the money cuts that have to face. This poor baby is another result of poor money management by our government and this joke of a council. Very sad indeed. Baden Powell would be turning in his grave of he saw how his health service was being run.
i would like to say that i cant express how ur feeling at this very sad time but i understand wot ur going through , ive been there 9yrs ago , i too lost my baby due to hospital negligence , i was told i fell through a loop hole on my very first child , so basically i wasnt under midwives or consultants so i wasnt told for hours that my child i was due to deliver had died , it breaks my heart to hear of your loss and even though its not much comfort to you at this moment in time , but in all these maternity units needs a good kick up theyre backsides they promised me after fighting for years that the shake up they had with me will never happen again unyet it still goes on we all need to get petition going to prevent these tragedies from happening again