NHS trust admits safety failings after inquiry into deaths of two patients

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust faces an unlimited fine for the offences relating to incidents in 2019 and 2020.

The deaths occurred at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (PA) (PA Archive)

An NHS trust has admitted three offences of failing to provide safe care after an inquiry into the deaths of a pensioner and a dialysis patient at one of its hospitals.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which was recently the subject of a highly critical report into the maternity services it offered between 2000 and 2019, admitted the charges through its barrister at Telford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The court heard one of the offences relates to the death of 31-year-old Mohammed Ismael Zaman, who suffered severe blood loss while undergoing dialysis in 2019.

Another charge was brought against the trust by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after the death of Max Dingle, who was aged in his 80s when his head became trapped between a bed rail and a mattress in 2020.

Opening the facts of the case against the trust, the CQC’s lawyer Ryan Donoghue said the failures in care provided to Mr Zaman “were the legal cause of his death, for which the trust is responsible”.

Mr Donoghue added that Mr Dingle’s “head was trapped between the bed rails and mattress” after he was admitted with chronic lung disease.

An alarm was immediately raised when Mr Dingle was found, the court heard, and he was freed, but he died from a cardiac arrest.

The court heard the deaths occurred at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in October 2019 and May 2020.

Referring to the death of Mr Dingle, Mr Donoghue said: “The basis (of the guilty plea) is that the failures exposed him to a significant risk of avoidable harm.”

An independent review of maternity services, chaired by Donna Ockenden and published in March, found “repeated errors in care” at the trust, which led to injury to either mothers or their babies.

Some 201 babies could have – or would have – survived if the trust had provided better care, the report said.