NHS trust fined for failure to apologise to family within reasonable time

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has fined Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,250 for failing to apologise to a family within a reasonable time over a baby’s treatment.

It issued a fixed penalty notice for failure to comply with the ‘duty of candour’, which requires providers to be open and honest with patients or their families if they suffer harm.    

In this case a baby had been admitted in July 2016, but there were delays in diagnosing his condition and missed opportunities to admit him to hospital.  

Although the trust recorded it as a notifiable safety incident, the family were not informed and did not receive an apology until October.

Chief Inspector of Hospitals Professor Ted Baker said: “The action that we have taken against Bradford Teaching Hospitals does not relate to the care provided to this baby, but to the fact that the trust was slow to inform the family that there had been delays and missed opportunities in the treatment of their child.”

The trust has been contacted for comment.

Mark Smulian