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Inside Health

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Series that demystifies health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.

Series that demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice.

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Inside Health: Preventable deaths, Poo bank, Waterbirths

24/01/2017

Preventable deaths, Poo bank, Waterbirths

BBC Radio 4 - Inside Health, Preventable deaths, Poo bank, Waterbirths

Preventable deaths in hospitals, Mark visits a stool bank, and evidence for water births.

Preventable deaths in hospitals - are they a good measure of quality of care? Plus, Mark visits a bank for frozen faecal matter and we take a look at the evidence for water births.

Are preventable deaths in hospitals a good measure of the quality of care being offered to patients? It's estimated that there are 12,000 deaths a year in hospitals which could have been avoided, but what does that mean and should we be worried that that number could rise with the NHS under pressure?

Mark Porter visits a 'poo bank' in Portsmouth where donated faecal matter is being frozen and stored for later use in patients with Clostridium difficile or C. diff.

And midwife Mervi Jokinen and our own Margaret McCartney take a look at the evidence for waterbirths. Is giving birth in water less painful? And is it safe?

Producer: Lorna Stewart.

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