Baby dies after being refused treatment

A BABY died after being refused access to a notorious hospital because the A&E department closed at night and the children’s ward was dealing with an emergency.

Holly Waters lived just two miles from Stafford Hospital, but had to be driven 22 miles to a second hospital by paramedics.

Yesterday her devastated parents told how seven-month-old Holly died just two minutes before arriving at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stokeon-Trent – 49 minutes after paramedics had first reached her.

The family called 999 after Holly’s mother, Charlotte Waters, discovered her unconscious in her cot. Up to that point, Holly had been a normal, healthy baby.

Stafford Hospital’s A&E has been shut between 10pm and 8am since December because of staff shortages. Holly’s father Sean Birch said this – and an already full children’s ward – led to a 20-minute delay.

Mr Birch said: ‘If she had gone to

‘Staff followed protocol’

Stafford Hospital and they had managed to put a drip in and stabilise her, then send her to North Staffordshire, she would still be here today.’

News of the incident came just a day after the Care Quality Commission reported the hospital was ‘meeting all the essential standards of quality’. Its findings came three years after a damning report by its predecessor, the Healthcare Commission, revealed ‘appalling standards of care’.

Both West Midlands Ambulance Service and the Mid Staffordshire trust said it was impossible to say whether admitting Holly to Stafford Hospital would have made a difference.

Colin Ovington, director of nursing at Stafford Hospital, said: ‘The (paediatric unit) staff were already treating a very seriously ill child. The staff correctly followed the joint protocol between the hospital and ambulance service for these circumstances.’ An initial post- mortem examination was unable to establish a cause of death.