FAMILIES of 13 babies who died at the Countess of Chester Hospital have now been provided with “full and accurate information” about what happened.

Bosses at the NHS trust which runs the hospital took the decision in July last year to change neonatal admission arrangements following concern about high mortality rates.

They also requested a review of the neonatal unit by The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Nursing.

The step was taken as the trust wanted to “better understand why there had been a greater number of deaths than we would normally expect on our neonatal unit between January 2015 and July 2016”.

The review team looked at between 13 and 15 cases relating to unexpected or unexplained stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

The report was originally due to be completed by the end of August last year, but was delayed and finally published yesterday.

It confirms that there is “no single cause or factor identified to explain the increase in mortality numbers”.

Ian Harvey, medical director at The Countess, said: “We’ve acted swiftly to get the 13 individual external case note reviews completed as advised by the Royal College. This has been a detailed exercise, concluded within the last two weeks. This means that when we speak with parents we can now share full and accurate information, on an individual basis.

“We are desperately sorry for any distress or upset this review has caused. We know those families affected have been through so much already.”

It has also emerged that restrictions on neonatal admissions will remain in place while the trust ensures it has acted on all 24 recommendations included in the review.

Only 'lower risk babies', born after 32 weeks, will be cared for at the Chester hospital, with 'high dependency' births taking place elsewhere.

Three intensive care cots will be closed at the Countess neonatal unit, with 13 remaining open to “provide specialist and high dependency care for newly born and premature babies born at 32-weeks and above”.

On an average week, 60 babies are born on the maternity unit with only one or two mums giving birth before 32 weeks.

For these women the delivery of their babies will likely be at Arrowe Park Hospital, in Wirral or another neighbouring unit based on availability managed by the regional network.

A statement on the Countess website says: “The review makes a total of 24 recommendations across a range of areas including compliance with standards, staffing, competencies, leadership, team working and culture. We are already working to implement these recommendations.

“One of the recommendations included conducting a further thorough independent review of each neonatal death between January 2015 and 2016 to determine any factors which could have changed the outcomes.

“While this has now been completed as a matter of priority, it has led to the review taking longer than originally anticipated.

“The change to admission arrangements will remain in place until we are certain we have acted on all the recommendations in the review.”

Tony Chambers, the trust's chief executive, said: “Throughout this we have never lost sight of the families left bereaved by the loss of their baby, and they have always been our primary concern.

“It must have been devastating for them to lose their baby, and then face a period of not knowing. We are now able to share everything that we understand about what has happened here and our thoughts are with them.”