West Yorkshire hospital trust apologises after baby death failings

An NHS hospital trust has apologised after a coroner found a series of failures contributed to the death of a newborn baby. 

Alfie Hinton died 23 minutes after being born on 10 May 2019 at Airedale General Hospital, Keighley, due to a brain injury. 

At an inquest into the baby’s death, an assistant West Yorkshire coroner, Charlotte Keighley, said delays in the induction of labour arose from the unavailability of beds at the time, followed by further delays in monitoring Alfie's mother.

Ms Keighley said Alfie's death was contributed to by neglect and, in her Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report,  said Alfie's mother was admitted to hospital on 8 May 2019 due to high levels of bile acids, which increases the chance of a still birth.

The assistant coroner added that induction of labour was requested "as soon as possible", the following morning at the latest, but it was not done until 22:50 the following day. 

The report said that this was put down to "a significant delay arising from the unavailability of beds on the labour ward."  

It added that there were subsequent delays in monitoring Alfie's mother and a "complete umbilical cord occlusion" occurred shortly before Alfie's delivery. Upon delivery his heart was slow and, despite resuscitation attempts, Alfie did not survive.

Ms Keighley wrote: "I could find no evidence of how, or if, the maternal risks were assessed following her admission, nor how the level of risk posed by the level of bile acids was communicated to those tasked with prioritising those patients awaiting induction of labour."

She said that when a low heart rate was noticed it was initially assumed to be an "issue with the monitoring equipment" due to "little awareness of the risks already present." 

Interim chief nurse at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Lianne Robinson, said: "Our deepest sympathies go to Alfie's family and we are very sorry that our care fell short of our usual high standards.

"We are committed to ensuring that concerns from the coroner will be acted upon.  Following Alfie's death we have made a number of procedural changes and will continue to review our practices to ensure we learn from this very distressing incident."