MUMS and babies may have died in North Manchester General Hospital because of poor maternity care, according to a new report.

The report into childbirth services at Pennine Acute NHS Trust hospitals, including the maternity unit at North Manchester in Crumpsall, describes how bad medical decisions, poor attitudes and staff shortages led to deaths.

The report focuses on the maternity wards at North Manchester and the Royal Oldham Hospital, but does not say at which hospital the deaths occurred.

However, because the hospital in Oldham, which has the tertiary neonatal service, was not effectively established as a high-risk site for obstetrics as it should have been, the risk was unnecessarily spread across both hospitals.

The report said this meant the level of risk for mothers and their babies was higher at North Manchester, which is not as well-equipped as Oldham.

One baby died as a result of antenatal staff failing to spot its mother’s blood type.

It gave examples of women suffering severe trauma following Caesarean births, particularly at the Crumpsall site.

Deborah Carter, Pennine’s new maternity director, wrote the report for the trust’s board, which was revealed last week.

The report says the trust’s dependence on agency staff and its lack of specialisation was another reason why women were suffering.

Ms Carter wrote: “The combination of these things has led to untoward outcomes for women.”

She cited an example of one woman who was taken back into theatre three times after surgery but no effective resolution to her symptoms was found.

It was later found that she had faecal peritonitis after remaining in hospital for several months, and she now has a colostomy.

Reduced staffing numbers also resulted in women not receiving appropriate care and specific issues have related to poor diabetes management and incidents of patients not being correctly monitored and falling unwell.

In 2012, the maternity unit at Fairfield General Hospital – Bury’s only hospital – in Rochdale Old Road closed, with childbirth services transferred to NMGH.

Pregnant women in Bury now have to choose whether to give birth at NMGH, ROH, Royal Bolton Hospital, Salford Birth Centre, Burnley General Hospital or birth centres in Blackburn and Rossendale.