Health board apologises for ‘failings’ in baby death

● NHS Grampian says there are no excuses

A health board has apologised unreservedly after a probe found “multiple failings” in the care and treatment given to a baby who later died.

NHS Grampian said there were no excuses for its conduct in the case and admitted it had failed the family of the young boy.

The board said it accepts all of the recommendations put forward by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), which also found the board had failed to properly communicate with the child’s parents following the death.

The SPSO report, published on Wednesday, centres around the case of the child referred to as Baby A.

The baby’s mother, known only as Mrs C, complained to the SPSO about the care provided to her son at the Aberdeen Royal Children’s Hospital. The child had been fitted with a shunt, a medical device to relieve pressure on the brain, shortly after he was born. His mother complained that when he was admitted to the hospital several months later, there were multiple failings in care and treatment.

Her son died in a specialist paediatric neurosurgery cen- tre at another health board a few days after his admission to the hospital.

The SPSO concluded: “Our investigation determined that there was a lack of clarity regarding the roles of each medical team and that there was a lack of communication between consultants when Baby A’s condition was not improving. We also found that the neurosurgical team had not kept reasonable records, nor had they appropriately assessed Baby A before and after operations.

“We identified significant delays in Baby A being reviewed after he underwent operations and a delay in clinicians contacting the specialist centre for advice on the man- agement of Baby A. Finally, we considered there to have been a lack of communication from the neurosurgical team and Baby A’s parents.”

Summarising its findings, the ombudsman said: “There were multiple failings in care and treatment provided to Baby A when he became unwell in August 2015; and the board failed to reasonably communicate with Mrs and Mr C following Baby A’s death.”

It has issued nine recommendations for action in the wake of the case.

A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said: “There can be no excuses for our conduct in this case and we apologise unreservedly.”