Hospital trust pleads guilty over baby death
An NHS trust has admitted failing to provide safe care and treatment for a mother and her baby boy, who died seven days after an emergency delivery.
Mother Sarah Richford said it brought "some level of justice" for baby Harry's death in 2017.
Lawyers for the East Kent Hospitals Trust pleaded guilty to the charge at Folkestone Magistrates Court. The trust said it had made "significant changes" and would "do everything we can to learn from this tragedy".
Mrs Richford said: "Although Harry's life was short, hopefully it's made a difference and that other babies won't die".
She added: "If somebody had done this before Harry was born he may be alive today."
The prosecution by the Care Quality Commission followed an inquest in 2020, which found Harry's death was wholly avoidable and contributed to by neglect at Margate's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital.
The inquest found more than a dozen areas of concern in the care of Harry and his mother, including failings in the way an "inexperienced" doctor carried out the delivery, followed by delays in resuscitation.
Coroner Christopher Sutton-Mattocks criticised the trust for initially saying the death was "expected", adding that an inquest was only ordered due to the family's persistence.
Source: BBC News, 19 April 2021