The city's hospital Trust - which is responsible for the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital - was today fined £800,000 over serious failings in the care and treatment of mum Sarah Andrews and baby daughter, Wynter.
The sentence was decided by District Judge Grace Leong after hearing from the prosecutor on behalf of the Care Quality Commission, which brought legal action against the Trust, and from Bernard Thorogood, a specialist barrister representing the interests of the Trust. She ordered to Trust pay £13,668.65 costs and a victim surcharge of £181.
Tiny new-born Wynter died after the umbilical cord had become wrapped around her neck and from acute chorioamnionitis - an inflammation of the placenta due to an infection. She had also suffered a haemorrhage to the brain and lung.
Read more: Baby died at childbirth due to 'gross failings' by Queen's Medical Centre staff
An inquest at Nottingham Coroner's Court in 2020 heard that staff failed to recognise Mrs Andrews was in established and not latent labour, failed to act on high blood pressure readings and carried out four "inaccurate and insufficient handovers" to colleagues as part of a catalogue of errors in the lead up to baby Wynter's death.
Midwives at the Queen's Medical Centre had told the inquest they were "overworked and understaffed", and said they didn't feel able to professionally challenge colleagues at the hospital. Assistant coroner Laurinda Bower had said: "These failures have a direct link to Wynter's death."
Today's substantial financial penalty came after Mr Thorogood entered two guilty pleas on behalf of the Trust - which has more than 17,000 staff and is a major employer in the city - at a court hearing on Wednesday (January 25). The charges concerned a failure to provide care and treatment in a safe way resulting in harm or loss to Mrs Andrews and little Wynter, who died in her parents arms after 23 minutes and 30 seconds of life.
The hearing also comes after last October's court case in Sheffield where the CQC prosecuted The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. It was ordered to pay a total of £233,238 after pleading guilty to one charge of failing to provide safe care and treatment to four young children.
Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard this week, baby Wynter was born in a "poor condition" after a Category A C-section. Extensive efforts were made to resuscitate and incubate but she did not respond and died.
After her death, Miles Taylor, an independent consultant obstetrics and gynaecologist, reviewed the care mother and baby received. He made a number of startling criticisms of the care provided from week 40 of Mrs Andrews's pregnancy - including the findings of cardiography (the use of a machine to record the beating of the heart) findings which ought to have triggered emergency C-section and delivery within minutes.
Read more: Nottingham hospital trust prosecuted over baby who died after 23 minutes
The Trust had computer systems that did not interact with each other. Staff did not have access to systems used by community midwives.
There was a shortage of midwives to care for Mrs Andrews. The midwife caring for her was also caring for another patient in the unit - a point which was cited amongst a raft of criticisms delivered in court by Ryan Donoghue, representing the CQC.
In a statement after the guilty pleas were entered, Chief Executive Anthony May said: "We are truly sorry for the pain and grief that we caused Mr and Mrs Andrews due to failings in the maternity care we provided. We let them down at what should have been a joyous time in their lives".
* The review into Nottingham University Hospitals ( NUH ), which is being led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, began last September. It was launched after more than 100 families with experiences of maternity failings wrote to former Health Secretary Sajid Javid demanding the action.
Last October Donna Ockenden's website posted: "I am pleased to announce that this week we have appointed the first three members of the Nottingham Maternity Review ‘Family Voices’ team . Our family voices team will be ‘experts by experience’ or have had a great deal of experience working with and supporting families.
"We are honoured that Baroness Shaista Gohir OBE, James Titcombe OBE and Sandra Igwe have agreed to join our team and help to ensure the family voices are heard throughout everything we do, from the start to the finish of the review. Our ‘Family Voices’ team will help us reach out and engage with all of Nottingham’s diverse communities, and very importantly to involve the voice of all the fathers who have been affected by the events in maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH)".
Read next:
- Baby would have 'likely survived' if her mother was given C-section one hour earlier
- Queen's Medical Centre midwives 'overworked and understaffed' before baby's death
- Mum says midwives 'dismissed' her concerns before her baby died after childbirth
- NUH speaks of 'deepest regret' as it admits failing to provide safe care to baby Wynter Andrews
- Nottingham maternity review to get underway as families seek answers
