Whitewash! Fury at inquiry into 11 child deaths on heart ward
GRIEVING families yesterday branded an inquiry into the deaths of 11 children on a heart ward a ‘whitewash’ and said they still didn’t know why they had died.
A major review of specialist heart care nationwide has now been ordered following the probe.
The two-year inquiry looked at practices at Bristol Children’s Hospital, where 11 children died between 2010 and 2014 following heart surgery on ward 32.
But the 239-page report found there was ‘no evidence’ of failings in care.
The youngest of the victims was a fourmonth old Lacey-Marie Poton, who died in July 2013, hours after being sent home from A&E.
Her mother, Emma Poton, 22, branded the inquiry a ‘whitewash’.
‘I am really angry and shocked. We don’t know Lacey-Marie’s actual cause of death,’ she said.
‘I am struggling with the report. I am really disappointed as most of it is favouring the hospital.’
NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh will now demand that the 21 NHS hospitals providing specialist treatment for adults and children are subject to close scrutiny. They will be given a rating based on death rates and outcomes of treatment and given a five-year-plan on how to make improvements.
The inquiry was ordered by Professor Keogh in 2014, after a number of parents came forward alleging their children had died or been harmed following heart surgery.
The hospital was the centre of a high-profile heart scandal in the 1990s where an ‘old boys culture’ among doctors contributed to the deaths of up to 35 babies. Families feared history was repeating itself, accusing staff of neglect and trying to cover up mistakes.
Other victims included sevenyear-old Luke Jenkins, who died in 2012, days after his parents were told he would make a ‘full recovery’ from the operation.
Four-year- old Sean Turner also died that year after being placed on understaffed ward 32 when he needed dedicated care.
But the report concluded there was ‘no evidence’ of failings in care and treatment on the scale of the 1990s scandal. It said standards were ‘ broadly comparable’ with other hospitals and most families and children were ‘satisfied’ with their care.
But the report did warn of a lack of beds, particularly on ward 32, which cares for children following heart surgery, leading to ‘serious pressures’ across the cardiac department.
But this didn’t affect their overall care, it concluded, and some parents say they are still in the dark as to why their children died. Families were also angry that there was no public hearing which would have led to managers and doctors being grilled on went wrong.
Robert Woolley, chief executive of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the children’s heart services, said: ‘We fully accept the findings of these reports and welcome their publication as a way to learn from mistakes.
‘We didn’t get it right for these families, and I’d like to apologise to the families unreservedly, on behalf of everyone at the trust.’