Auckland City Hospital launches review after four mothers die - three since alert level 3

A review has been launched after it was revealed four women have died in Auckland City Hospital after or during pregnancy in 2020.

The husband of one woman who died during the COVID-19 lockdown has told NZME his wife was taken into intensive care after they lost their baby at 21 weeks. He wasn't permitted to be at the hospital because of the lockdown and had to stay at home.

"My wife would lose her unborn baby and grieve alone. She would then face surgery without family support," the unnamed man told the Weekend Herald.

The Auckland District Health Board says it's too early to understand if any of the DHBs "systems or processes" impacted on the deaths until the review has been conducted.

"I want to emphasise how seriously we are taking each of these cases, as well as the overall increase we have seen in maternal deaths this year, and that we deeply sympathise with the affected whānau," a spokeswoman said.

Auckland DHB director of women's health Dr Rob Sherwin said it wouldn't comment on the individual cases.

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Dr Sherwin confirmed three of the deaths happened since the start of alert level 3 on March 23, while the other happened earlier this year when there were no COVID-19 restrictions.

"This is a higher number of maternal deaths than in previous years and we are taking this very seriously.

"As is [the] usual process for any unexpected event for a mother or baby, these are all being investigated as adverse events.

"We are fully reviewing the care of the mothers with a panel that includes external reviewers."

Dr Sherwin said in a statement the review process aims to place the patient and family members "at the centre" to help them and the DHB understand what happened.

"For ethical and privacy reasons we can't comment on the details of the care provided to an individual patient, except to say we understand how very hard it can be for families when there is a tragic outcome while a loved one is in our care.

"We will be meeting with all the families to discuss the findings of the reviews once complete and answer any questions they may have."