An NHS trust has admitted it failed to provide safe care and treatment to three babies who died within days of their births.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) charged Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust over the deaths, which all occurred in 2021.
At Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the trust admitted six charges of failing to provide safe care and treatment to the three children and their mothers.
The court was told that “serious and systemic failures” exposed all three mothers and their babies to significant risk of avoidable harm.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the trust told the families in court they offered their “profound apologies and regrets” to those affected and that improvements have been made, including hiring more midwives and providing further training to staff.
The hearing continues, and the trust is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.
The guilty pleas related to the deaths of Adele O’Sullivan, who was 26 minutes old when she died on April 7 2021, four-day-old Kahlani Rawson, who died on June 15 2021 and Quinn Parker, who was one day old when he died on July 16 2021.
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NUH is at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in NHS history, with midwife Donna Ockenden leading the investigation into more than 2,000 cases.
It is the second time the CQC has prosecuted the trust over failures in maternity care.
It was fined £800,000 for a “catalogue of failings and errors” that led to the death of a baby 23 minutes after she was born at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham in September 2019.
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