Doctors warn babies are dying due to lack of test for heart defect

Doctors writing in the Lancet medical journal have warned that babies are dying needlessly or being left brain damaged due to a failure to adopt a simple test for heart defects.

Pulse oximetry measures a baby’s oxygen levels and takes around five minutes. However, doctors writing in the journal say it is yet to be adopted by the National Screening Committee (NSC).

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care, said the NSC took pulse oximetry “extremely seriously” and it was waiting for the results of further research before it reviewed the issue, adding that physical examinations for newborns also checked for congenital heart disease twice by the time the baby was eight weeks old.

A study published in 2011 that screened more than 20,000 babies at six hospitals in the UK, found that adding the test to traditional techniques identified 92 per cent of babies with heart defects.

Pulse oximetry has also been found to identify the early onset of pneumonia and sepsis in newborn babies, and the study’s authors believe it could help the government to reach its target of reducing neonatal mortality by 50 per cent by 2025.

Rajwant Kaur Singh, chief executive officer of the Children’s Heart Foundation, said that the charity continued to campaign for the introduction of the test.

“We are aware of families who have lost children who weren’t diagnosed, and those who have been saved thanks to pulse oximetry.”

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care said the NSC “takes the issue of pulse oximetry extremely seriously and ran a consultation to establish the effects of screening for all babies for low oxygen, the results of which were inconclusive.

“The UK NSC supported the call for further research to be undertaken before it reviews this issue.  This is ongoing, and the results are eagerly awaited.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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