Investigation into maternity services at Northwick Park Hospital - Healthcare Commission publishes final report
23/08/2006
Thank you very much for all your hard work, especially as the outcome is better than expected. Can't thank you enough.
Shana, Wiltshire
Death during childbirth
A report by national health watchdog the HealthCare Commission has criticised the care given on the maternity ward at Northwick Park Hospital after the death during childbirth of ten women at the hospital between April 2002 and 2005.
The HealthCare Commission said today that the hospital had compromised the safety of the women in its care.
Childbirth solicitor
Specialist clinical negligence solicitor Louise Forsyth, who represents the husband of one of the women, Premalatha Jeevagan who died aged 27 after giving birth to her first child said:
"I am pleased that the provision of maternity care at Northwick Park Hospital has been fully investigated. However it makes for incredibly sad reading and the findings are extremely damning."
"I am especially concerned that the Trust failed to learn from earlier deaths and that similar failings were found between the third death in 2002 and Mrs Jeevagan's death in 2004. Her death could so easily have been avoided and this is very difficult for Mr Jeevagan and his family to accept. It is difficult to understand why links between the deaths were not made possibly enabling later deaths to be prevented."
Staff at the hospital were forced to work in situations that compromised their professional standards of care, the report said. Women using the maternity services did not receive the level of care to which they should have been entitled.
The Commission criticised hospital managers for failing to address a number of underlying problems in its maternity services.
It also said that managers had failed to address a number of underlying problems in its maternity services.
At her Inquest, the Coroner concluded that Mrs Jeevagan died because of a delay in diagnosis and treatment of her condition by doctors at the hospital. The Coroner also expressed concern that such a large hospital relied so heavily upon locum cover, a concern reflected in the Commission's report.
Mr Jeevagan's clinical negligence case against the Hospital Trust in ongoing.
The Commission criticised the hospital's internal investigation for being too narrow and failing to consider the care provided by other specialists than hospital obstetricians.
The report makes a number of recommendations including:
- Emergency interventional radiology service to be put in place to be available to respond to patients' needs wherever and whenever they arise in the event of catastrophic postnatal bleeding.
- Robust systems to be put in place to monitor the quality and performance of all NHS maternity services.
The report is available on the Healthcare Commission's website.
Please direct all related media enquiries to Rachel Brown in the Press Office on 0161 925 5594.
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