NHS Trust to appear in court over death of baby 23 minutes after birth

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust also investigated for wide-ranging failures in maternity care by senior midwife Donna Ockenden

Mother Sarah Andrews with her daughter Wynter ( )

An NHS Trust is due to appear in court over the death of a baby who died just 23 minutes after being born.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is being prosecuted by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over the death of Wynter Sophia Andrews, who died on September 15 2019.

An inquest in 2020 found she died from hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy – a loss of oxygen flow to the brain – which could have been prevented had staff at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham delivered her earlier.

The CQC, which regulates health services in England, announced in July last year that it would prosecute the trust on two counts, both of which read that a registered person failed “to provide care and treatment in (a) safe way resulting in harm or loss” – one in relation to Wynter and another to her mother, Sarah Andrews.

Ms Andrews was admitted to the QMC on September 14 2019, with Wynter delivered at 2.06pm the next day.

At an inquest in October 2020, assistant coroner Laurinda Bower concluded that Ms Andrews “did not receive the care and attention that she clinically required” and her baby “ought to have been delivered by Caesarean section well before 1406 hours when she was in fact delivered”.

In a preventing future deaths report, Ms Bower said the hospital had “operated in a fundamentally unsafe manner” due to being understaffed, which the inquest found had happened on multiple occasions with staff not having concerns listened to.

Staff told me that they have repeatedly raised their concerns about patient safety, but their concerns have been met with silence

Assistant coroner Laurinda Bower, at the inquest into the death of Wynter Andrews

After the CQC’s announcement that it would prosecute the trust, its chief executive, Rupert Egginton, apologised to Wynter’s family for the “tragic loss” and said a “range of improvements” had been introduced.

The hearing, which could see a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine imposed, is scheduled to begin at 10am on Wednesday at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court.