The Scottish Government has ordered a review into two mystery surges in deaths of newborn babies that happened over a six-month period.
On Friday, the Scottish Government announced that it had commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to lead a wider inquiry into increased neonatal death rates, which are at their highest in a decade (pdf).
According to numbers published by Public Health Scotland (PHS), there were a higher than expected number of deaths in both September 2021 and March 2022, which caused the mortality rate to surpass a set threshold.
At least 21 babies died in September 2021, and at least 18 babies under 4 weeks old died in March 2022….