Royal Oldham Hospital staff failings led to baby's death

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34341453

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A series of failings by staff at a Greater Manchester hospital led to the death of a newborn baby boy, a coroner has ruled.

Natasha and Sean Butler's son Spencer lived for only 33 minutes after he was born at the Royal Oldham in May 2014.

During the inquest into his death at Heywood Coroner's Court, Lisa Hashmi said errors of judgements by staff amounted to gross failure.

The hospital trust admitted "without question" it had "let the family down".

Mrs Butler, from Chadderton, was two weeks' overdue when she was admitted to hospital.

The inquest heard that since her pregnancy was not progressing, she was induced twice under the care of midwives on the maternity unit.

Both attempts failed to induce labour.

'Poor communication'

The coroner said the hospital failed to follow procedures and the option of a Caesarean section should have been discussed at this point.

Instead, a further two doses of the induction drug were administered.

Mrs Butler was not examined by a doctor, which the coroner said was another failing by the hospital.

The inquest heard the hospital was extremely busy at the time but the coroner concluded that staff should have escalated their concerns over Mrs Butler to senior members of staff.

Poor communication was also highlighted.

It was not until the baby started to show signs of distress, when his heart rate dropped, that action was taken.

After being in hospital for three days, Mrs Butler had an emergency Caesarean.

The coroner highlighted multiple failings including failure to provide checks, failure to follow guidelines and failure to provide timely medical intervention.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Immediate action has been taken and improvements made to our systems and processes, particularly around induction of labour guidelines."