SCOTTISH health boards have been urged to improve after figures showed some have higher than expected death rates amongst babies.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran is among 21 of Britain’s health boards and trusts to be given “red light” warnings for their high stillbirth and newborn death rates. Other Scottish health boards in Grampian, Forth Valley and Dumfries and Galloway received less severe amber ratings.

The worst-performing health boards have been asked to identify changes which could bring down the rates, but some attributed the situation to local factors.

Professor Jason Gardosi, director of the not-for-profit Perinatal Institute, said: “Regrettably, many boards still seem to have a head-in-the-sand approach. All boards should evaluate their deaths to understand whether a tragedy could have been avoided.”

Report author Professor Elizabeth Draper, of Leicester University, added: “Trust and health boards that fall into the red band have been identified as having a perinatal rate of more than 10 per cent higher than average for similar trusts and health boards.

“There are many reasons why trusts and health boards may have a higher rate and we recommend they carry out a standardised review of all their deaths to look for opportunities to improve care.

“The presence of a high rate is not necessarily an indicator of poor care as there may be other factors which we have been unable to account for that may have contributed to this rate.”

Jackson Carlaw, the Scottish Conservatives’ health spokesman, said the report would be of “huge concern” to pregnant women in Ayrshire.

Maureen Watt, Scotland’s public health minister, said: “The Scottish Government responded to a parliamentary petition in 2010... by setting an aim in 2012 to reduce stillbirths by 15 per cent by 2015.

“The fact we have managed to reduce stillbirth rates by 18 per cent in the past four years shows that a combination of approaches is driving change.”

NHS Ayrshire and Arran said it conducted a review and found no systemic failings.

The rates are published in a report by MBRRACE-UK – a group of academics, charities and institutes which carries out inquiries into maternity deaths.