An East Midlands hospital trust has been ordered to pay more than £1.6m for exposing three women and their babies to avoidable harm in its maternity ward.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust was today sentenced to pay a total of £1,667,994 after it pleaded guilty to six criminal charges of failing to provide safe and care treatment to the women and babies between March and July 2021.
“The mothers and families of these babies have had to endure things that no family should after the care provided by our hospitals failed them”
Anthony May
In all three cases, the baby died within days of birth at Nottingham City Hospital.
Charges were brought forward by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which alleged that the trust had breached various regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
The CQC began its prosecution after the trust, which is currently subject to a national maternity investigation, admitted mistakes had been made which put the three mothers and their babies at unnecessary risk of harm.
Failures included not properly recording foetal heart rates, not adequately risk assessing patients and not providing a mother enough information when she was discharged from hospital, among others.
At today’s hearing, held at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, the trust acknowledged that it did not have systems in place to ensure such failures in care did not happen.
It was ordered to pay £5.5m, reduced by the sentencing panel due to the early guilty plea and other mitigating factors.
The trust will pay more than £1.6m in fines for the breaches in regulations, as well as £67,755 in costs to the Care Quality Commission and a £190 victim surcharge, which funds services for victims and witnesses of crimes.
Anthony May, chief executive of the trust, said he was “truly sorry” for what happened.
“The mothers and families of these babies have had to endure things that no family should after the care provided by our hospitals failed them,” said Mr May.
“These families have shown incredible strength during this time, and I can only imagine how painful it must have been for them to share their experiences again.
“Listening to them in court was moving and provided further incentive for us to continue to improve our services.
“This is the second time we have prosecuted the trust for not providing safe care and treatment in its maternity services”
Helen Rawlings
“Today’s judgment is against the trust, and I also apologise to staff who we let down when it came to providing the right environment and processes to enable them to do their jobs safely.”
He added that the trust had “already implemented changes to help prevent incidences like this from this happening again”.
As well as the court case, which concluded today, an independent review into maternity care at the Nottingham trust is being carried out, chaired by senior midwife Donna Ockenden.
This review is investigating hundreds of cases at Nottingham City Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre dating back to 2012 in which mothers or babies died or came to harm.
Speaking after today’s court judgement, Helen Rawlings, director of operations in the Midlands for the CQC, said the deaths of the three babies was an “absolute tragedy”, and that the failure to protect them, and their mothers, was “unacceptable”.
Ms Rawlings added: “The vast majority of people receive good care when they attend hospital, but whenever a registered health care provider puts people in its care at risk of harm, we seek to take action to hold it to account and protect people.
“This is the second time we have prosecuted the trust for not providing safe care and treatment in its maternity services, and we will continue to monitor the trust closely to ensure they are making and embedding improvements so that women and babies receive the safe care they deserve.”
