Mary Glindon MP: Small steps by NHS can make a massive difference.

A respected national charity recently briefed me about Group B Streptococcus (Strep B). It is the UK's most common cause of life-threatening infection in new-born babies and of meningitis in children.

It’s a common bacterium that is carried by between 20 to 40 percent of women and is normally harmless but it can cause serious infection in young babies.

On average, two babies each day develop B Strep and one baby a week dies from the infection while another is left with a life-changing disability.

There is an ongoing clinical trial, GBS3, exploring whether testing pregnant women for Strep B will prevent infection more effectively than the UK’s current risk-based approach.

Costing £4.2m and funded by the National Institute for Health Research, the research arm of the NHS, the trial will involve 320,000 pregnant women and is being run by the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine in 80 sites in England, Scotland and Wales.

However, the trial needs 80 sites to be enrolled by October 2022, and currently has just 33 signed up.

I agree with the charity, Group B Strep Support that without robust evidence, policy won't change and that the trial is the best and probably only shot at being able to get the evidence to affect change.

I’m also urging hospitals to sign up to the trial so we can end these devastating and preventable infections in babies. It’s not a big ask but could do much good.

Our local Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust is already taking part, but Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust has yet to sign up.

Find out more at gbss.org.uk

Mary Glindon is Labour MP for North Tyneside