Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has today been sentenced by Nottingham Magistrates’ Court to pay a fine in the sum of £800,000.00 following a prosecution brought by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The prosecution concerns the death of baby Wynter Andrews, who died 23 minutes after she was born by caesarean section delivery at Queen’s Medical Centre in September 2019. An Inquest into Wynter’s death in 2020 found that she would have survived if she had been delivered earlier.

The prosecution is only the second brought by the CQC against an NHS maternity unit. The CQC alleged that Wynter and her mother did not receive safe care and treatment from the Nottingham maternity service.

The maternity care at NUH is currently under independent review, which is being led by Donna Ockenden, the midwife who led the review into the maternity failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust. Nottingham’s maternity units have been rated as “inadequate” by the CQC since 2020.

An expert obstetrician for the CQC provided evidence about the failures in Wynter’s care, which was presented to the Nottingham Magistrates’ Court at a hearing on 25.01.2023. Earlier this year, the Trust confirmed that it would not contest the prosecution and entered a guilty plea at the hearing.

Wynter Andrews’ parents released a statement after the hearing and said they “hope that this criminal prosecution against the trust for its unsafe care will finally be the jolt they need to prioritise patient safety and result in meaningful change”. They noted that none of the medical professionals involved, or NHS managers, have been made individually accountable for what happened.

We hope that the prosecution and the independent review of the maternity services in Nottingham brings about the improvements in care that are desperately needed to ensure that cases like this one are avoided in the future.