West Suffolk Hospital Trust fined over communication relating to childbirth death

A hospital has been fined by not being honest and open with the family of a patient who died during childbirth.

 

The women died following childbirth complications at West Suffolk Hospital in October 2018.

 

Following the incident,, the hospital was fined £2,500 by the Care Quality Commission for two breaches of candour rules.  The CQC found the trust had filed to notify the family “as soon as reasonably possible” and failed to provide them with an account of the incident in a “timely manner”.

 

The hospital has said it has apologised to the family for the “unnecessary distress” and had since improved procedures.

 

Fiona Allinson, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said “Under the duty of candour, all providers are required to be open and honest with patients or their families when something goes wrong or that appears to have caused significant harm.

 

“We issued two fixed penalty notices following the death of a patient at the trust and their handling of notifying the family in 2018.  There was a significant delay in following the duty of candour.”

 

Sue Wilkinson, chief nurse  at the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said “In this case our communications with a patient’s family were not good enough, and we have apologised to them for the way this was handled and the unnecessary distress this must have caused them at a very difficult time.

 

“We take the CQC’s findings very seriously, and have already taken steps to improve the way we correspond with relatives following a patient’s death.”

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

 

Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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