UNDERCOVER filming at Manchester's top maternity hospital claims to have exposed alleged `serious failings' in patient care.

But bosses at St Mary's have hit back and denied the claims made by the BBC, saying it is the best baby unit in the region.

A reporter on the Panorama programme was offered work experience at the hospital between October and December last year, after apparently claiming she wanted to train as a midwife.

It is understood a special edition of Panorama next Thursday will show patients complaining of poor care, staff saying they are overstretched and a shortage of crucial equipment.

They are also expected to claim a woman gave birth on the wards rather than in the delivery unit and was not given adequate pain relief.

St Mary's maternity staff today backed the unit, saying it was the best in the region and they had met tough safety standards in a recent independent inspection.

As part of the programme, the team interviewed Farouk and Iram Ahmed, who the M.E.N. revealed had been expecting twins, but after a difficult birth at St Mary's lost one child and the other, Hafsa, now 16 months old, was left blind and disabled.

Midwives at St Mary's admit they are very busy, but say this is because thousands of women chose to give birth there every year. They say they follow strict safety guidelines and stopped admitting women 16 times during the filming period so women and babies were never put at risk.

Hospital bosses promised to look into any legitimate concerns raised by the programme. But they said if the BBC had evidence of safety breaches it was `irresponsible' to have kept them secret for the last four months.

Prof Dian Donnai, clinical head of St Mary's, said: "We have a national and international reputation for first class care of women, babies and families.

Volunteer

"We feel we are the best unit around here. We feel very upset that someone put themselves forward as a volunteer, saying they wished to be a midwife, were accepted as part of the team and betrayed the confidence of patients and staff.

"I have absolute confidence in our staff, who are very dedicated.

"And I have full confidence patients get the highest possible standards of care - this was confirmed by independent inspectors, who visited in January."

It is understood the programme will give a picture of staff trying to provide the best possible care, but struggling because of a lack of resources. Last year, more than 5,000 women attended the unit, compared to just under 4,000 in 2000.

Hospital bosses say they have spent £300,000 in the last two years on extra equipment for the maternity unit.

Julie Hempstock, manager of the ward where the volunteer filmed, said: "The staff feel betrayed. We let her into our team, we supported her and we feel she has betrayed us. People are very concerned because we do not recognise the BBC's description of the unit and we are worried that what we said could be taken totally out of context."

A BBC spokeswoman said: "Our programme is an entirely legitimate investigation, which exposes serious failings in maternity care."

She said the reporter's filming at St Mary's `repeatedly revealed shortages of crucial equipment, and staff who complained of being overstretched and struggling to provide the level of care they thought mothers deserved'.

She added: "We put all our findings to St Mary's and they declined to be interviewed.

"They offered us a statement which we have represented fairly in the programme."

The unit say they are not aware of any complaints from patients relating to the Panorama film, except from the Ahmeds, who live in Chorlton.

The couple were not satisfied with the hospital's investigation and have taken their complaint to the Healthcare Commission.

The hospital's probe pointed to difficulties reading two heart-rate monitors. Hospital bosses say those problems did not affect the Ahmeds' treatment.

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