A series of baby deaths at a Melbourne hospital are being investigated.

A spate of baby deaths at Djerriwarrh Health Services in Bacchus Marsh, Melbourne is being investigated by Australia’s health regulator.

A review last year into the deaths of at least 10 babies in just two years found seven of those tragic deaths could have been avoided.

Now, The Guardian reports the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is conducting a review into those avoidable deaths. It is perusing “thousands of pages of clinical records” in the hope of determining what went wrong, a statement by the agency said.

A review led by obstetrics expert Euan Wallace and released last year by the Victorian government found a series of failures in care at the facility.

Victorian health minister Jill Hennessy said last year that the hospital, on the fast-growing western fringe of Melbourne, had not kept up with local population growth.

“The most concerning risk was the apparent practice of accepting higher risk deliveries at 34 weeks, which were over the capability level of the unit,” the review found.

It also found that midwives’ attempts to raise the alarm about the cluster of baby deaths at the hospital between 2013 and 2014 were not properly acted on, Fairfax reports.

The ABC‘s 7:30, which reported on the tragic baby deaths at the hospital last month, found that a red flag should have been spotted back in 2013, when a woman who had delivered a stilborn baby haemorrhaged badly during labour and was sent home with an undiagnosed blood illness.

Her condition became so serious, she almost died.

Following that incident, the head of obstetrics at Western Health reported her doctor to the medical regulator AHPRA — but the regulator failed to act on the notification for two years, 7:30 reports.

The hospital’s board was sacked last year over the spike in baby deaths, and the Victorian government appointed a new administrator to oversee the hospital. But barely any information has so far been revealed about what actually went wrong that led to the needless loss of young life.

Now, the new investigation by AHPRA, which will contribute to a Department of Health and Human Services investigation into stillbirths and newborn deaths, will hopefully reveal some answers.

The hospital said in a statement that it couldn’t legally disclose how many practitioners were being investigated. However, AHPRA chief executive Martin Fletcher said the agency “owed it to the families who have suffered terrible loss” to carry out a thorough and fair investigation.

As Ms Hennessy said last year: “What has happened here has been a series of catastrophic failures by a number of parties that may have contributed to the very sad loss of young life.”

We certainly hope the truth behind these tragic, needless deaths is made known.