Nottingham Maternity Scandal – Trust Pleads Guilty In Baby Deaths Case

The BBC has reported that Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has pleaded guilty to six offences connected to the deaths of three babies in its maternity care.

The babies, Adele O’Sullivan, Kahlani Rawson, and Quinn Parker, all died within 14 weeks of each other in 2021 and the Care Quality Commission (the CQC) later charged NUH over failures to provide safe care and treatment to the three babies and to their mothers.

Second prosecution

This is the second time the CQC has prosecuted NUH over maternity failures.

In 2023, NUH was fined £800,000 after admitting failings in the care of Wynter Andrews, who died in 2019 at just 23 minutes old.

Guilty plea

Adele was 26 minutes old when she died in April 2021, and an Inquest found that there had been a series of “missed opportunities” in her mother’s treatment.

An Inquest into the death of Quinn, who was 2 days old when he died, found that a series of errors had contributed to his death.

Kahlani died at four days old in June 2021. A coroner said at the Inquest into her death that “failings in care” led to a 20-minute delay in carrying out an emergency caesarean section.

Following their deaths, NUH became the subject of a criminal investigation.

This week, NUH entered guilty pleas to the charges relating to Quinn, Kahlani, and Adele.

Sentencing is due to take place within the week.

Comment

News regarding the Nottingham maternity scandal continues to come and yet each development seems more shocking than the last.

It is devastating to know that three more innocent lives have been lost, and families have suffered the worst imaginable devastation, all of which due to serious mistakes and failings on the part of NUH.

The seriousness of the maternity scandal involving Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust cannot be understated but the news of the prosecutions being brought and now the fact that the Trust has pleaded guilty to these charges really does put it into perspective.

The families clearly will have to continue to try to rebuild their lives following the tragic loss of their babies and we can only hope that the fact NUH have made the decision to enter guilty pleas offers them some closure in some respects to enable them to do so.

The very least they deserve now is to know that that more necessary changes and improvements are going to be implemented imminently within Nottingham’s maternity services.