Scandal-hit NHS Trust f ined record £733k over baby’s death
A SCANDAL-HIT NHS trust has been fined a record £733,000 over the death of a seven-day-old baby.
East Kent Hospitals had previously admitted to a series of failings over the care of baby Harry Richford and his mother Sarah in November 2017.
The trust, currently subject of a major inquiry into its maternity services, was yesterday sentenced after a prosecution brought by the Care Quality Commission.
Mrs Richford told the court how she had felt ‘hopeless, exhausted and helpless’ lying on the operating table and summed up the care as ‘dire and inexcusable’. Harry was delivered too late by an emergency caesarean section at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent, performed by an inexperienced locum doctor.
The doctor was only working his third night at the hospital and had not had any prior assessment of skills and experience.
Harry was born silent and limp and there was another delay by a second doctor in resuscitating him and administering oxygen.
He died seven days later from irreversible brain damage after being transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit. East Kent initially refused to refer his death to the coroner claiming it was ‘expected’.
But his grandfather Derek Richford did so himself in March 2018 fearing the trust was trying to cover up mistakes. An inquest into Harry’s death in January 2020 concluded that it was ‘wholly avoidable’ and contributed to by neglect.
In April, the trust pleaded guilty to a series of failings leading up to Harry’s death.
Yesterday it was fined a record £733,000 at Folkestone magistrates’ court and ordered to pay an additional £28,000 in legal costs.
District judge Justin Barron told the court that the trust’s failings had caused the ‘greatest harm imaginable’. Addressing Harry’s parents, he said: ‘The trust fell far short of the appropriate standards of care and treatment in dealing with you.’ He said there were ‘systemic failures in the organisation’, adding that the NHS trust was ‘very much in the spotlight.’
Harry’s father Tom said: ‘Had these failings been addressed promptly and effectively we would not be here today. We are not here because of the failings from one evening.’ Philip Cave, finance director and board member at the trust, acknowledged a series of failures at East Kent Hospitals and apologised to Mr and Mrs Richford.
But he denied suggestions the trust had sought to cover up baby Harry’s death.
‘Systemic failures in the organisation’