Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust: Parents ‘appalled’ by hospital trust inaction after baby died following neglect
The parents of a newborn baby who died after neglect at a hospital say they have “had to carry the heavy burden of fighting for the bare minimum of truth and consequences”.
Fiona Winser-Ramm and Daniel Ramm said they “remain deeply appalled” by the conduct of a hospital trust after the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) suspended senior midwife Yvette Lake following misconduct connected to the death of their daughter Aliona Winser-Ramm, at Leeds General Infirmary, in January 2020.
Ms Winser-Ramm and Mr Ramm said the move by the NMC is “the first action resembling any individual accountability in the nearly seven years since our daughter’s death”.
And the couple said it only happened after they personally referred Ms Lake to the council, criticising Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) for not referring staff connected with the case to the regulator.
Aliona’s death has been one of the high profile tragedies which have led to the establishment of the independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services at the Leeds trust, which is being led by the senior midwife and investigator Donna Ockenden.
In 2023, a coroner concluded that Aliona died after neglect by midwives and identified gross failures.
Earlier this week, the NMC said labour ward co-ordinator Ms Lake, who has now retired, will be suspended for 12 months.
Ms Winser-Ramm and Mr Ramm said: “Whilst today brings a small sense of accountability and consequence, we believe that the NMC decision did not yet go far enough for a healthy child who died due to neglect.
“No regulatory ruling can ever replace the life of our beautiful daughter, Aliona, who was taken from us by the catastrophic neglect and gross failures of a number of staff at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.”
They said: “This suspension order is the first action resembling any individual accountability in the nearly seven years since our daughter’s death.
“During that time, we have had to carry the heavy burden of fighting for the bare minimum of truth and consequences, while the institutions around us remained silent.”
The couple said LTHT did not make any referrals to the NMC regarding their case, adding: “We remain deeply appalled by the conduct of LTHT.”
They said that Ms Lake was “supposed to be the culture setter for that ward and the ultimate gatekeeper to ensure patient safety and the escalation of urgent clinical concerns”.
The NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee decision said Ms Lake’s failures to recognise and appropriately categorise monitoring information “as pathological” and to secure timely obstetric review were “serious clinical failings”.
And it said: “The repeated nature of the failures, over a period of more than two hours, demonstrated the significance of the concerns about Miss Lake’s practice.
“The panel was satisfied that the conduct had exposed Patient A (Ms Winser-Ramm) and her baby to an unwarranted risk of harm.
“Miss Lake’s misconduct had breached the fundamental tenets of the nursing profession and therefore brought its reputation into disrepute.”
Ms Winser-Ramm and Mr Ramm said they had to object to Ms Lake’s voluntary removal from the register, to ensure the NMC process continued and said this is a “loophole” that should “simply not be allowed”.
They said: “Our battle is not unique.”
And they added: “Families are routinely left to act as investigators, regulators, and prosecutors while grieving their babies, because the system is designed to protect institutions rather than patients.
“This is yet further reasoning as to why a national statutory public inquiry into maternity services is so desperately needed.”
Ms Winser-Ramm and Mr Ramm said: “The fact that a number of other midwives linked to Aliona’s death still face regulatory scrutiny proves the scale of what went wrong the night Aliona died and any form of accountability has been delayed for years.”