THE Royal Berkshire Hospital has been named on a list of facilities with high rates of young deaths.

Hospitals with higher-than-expected perinatal mortality - stillbirths and deaths after up to 28 days of life - have been highlighted in the new MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquires across the UK) report.

Experts grouped organisations together by their type and size to compare mortality rates. Using figures form 2015 they created a traffic light system to highlight those where action needs to be taken to improve outcomes.

Of 165 NHS trusts and health boards across Britain, 21, including Reading's Hospital, have been labelled as "red" - meaning that they have a mortality rate which is over 10 per cent greater than the average for that type of organisation.

A spokesman for the Royal Berkshire Hospital said: "This report dates uses data that is two years - from December 2015.

"In June 2015, the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust put in place a series of improvements in our maternity unit, including perinatal care.

"In April 2016, the Care Quality Commission removed our trust from the list of outliers for perinatal deaths.

"Internal scrutiny in our performance continues to this day.

"Sadly there are perinatal deaths, but each is reviewed to ensure that these are not care related."

The authors of the report have called on these organisations to investigate the possible causes behind the higher rates.

Dr Brad Manktelow, associate professor at the University of Leicester, who led the statistical analysis, said: "Those trusts and health boards identified with high rates of stillbirth or neonatal death rates should review the quality of the care they provide.

"Work commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Programme is under way to develop a standardised perinatal mortality review tool to support and improve the quality of review of all stillbirths and neonatal deaths within all trusts and health boards in the future".

Overall, researchers found that the rate of stillbirth in the UK reduced by 8% between 2013 to 2015.

In 2015, the stillbirth rate was 3.87 per 1,000 total births, a fall from 4.20 per 1,000 total births in 2013.

But the authors said that despite the fall, UK stillbirth rates still remain high compared with many similar European countries and there remains "significant variation" across Britain.