Latest news with #childrensward
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Kettering Hospital's chief nurse pledges Skylark Ward improvement
A report into a hospital children's ward found phones went unanswered, some staff behaved unprofessionally and policies were repeatedly breached.A coroner ruled that a 13-year-old girl died because of neglect at Kettering General Hospital and dozens of families have raised concerns in recent years about the care internal NHS report obtained by the BBC found recurrent misdiagnoses and delays in "critical decisions for high-risk cases".Chief nurse Julie Hogg said the hospital had "relationships to rebuild" adding that it was "willing to put the time, effort and energy in because it's really important that children get safe care". The families - including those whose children died or became seriously ill - told the BBC in 2023 of repeated failures to diagnose life-threatening illnesses and regular discharging of patients who required urgent after that, the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), rated the hospital's children's and young people's services "inadequate", though this has since been upgraded to "requiring improvement".A coroner ruled neglect and a series of failures led to the death of Chloe Longster in 2022, who had sepsis and pneumonia on the Skylark paediatric ward. After further concerns were raised, a "rapid quality review" was carried out by the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board in November results of that internal review have been obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information found that insufficient senior medical support impacted life-saving interventions for patients with sepsis. The review said "we are regularly breaching our own policies" on review described "ongoing evidence of unprofessional behaviours among nursing and medical staff" and highlighted delayed responses to calls, unanswered phones and resistance to patient issue raised was that critically ill patients risked having care delayed because "we are managing [them] on a whiteboard".The review also found:The paediatric emergency department was "not adequately designed for emergency interventions". The hospital said it was mitigating this with extra staffOngoing delays in transferring patients to wards, "exacerbated by poor communication and unanswered phones"Staffing increased after the CQC visited "then stopped when CQC no longer focusing on the area"There had been an occasion in which just one paediatric nurse was on duty in the entire ward. The review found the nurse felt the "ward could be so dangerous it needs closed down" Ms Hogg - who was appointed in July 2024 - told the BBC: "Colleagues are working really hard together to provide the very best care that they can. "It's clear that there is room for improvement, and I think the majority of patients that come to Kettering General get a good experience, but we need to continue to listen and learn to ensure that our services are as safe as they possibly can be."Asked how confident she was of embedding changes, Ms Hogg said: "I think the first step... is being open and honest and acknowledging that we've got a problem." Asked whether she believed the hospital had been transparent about failings in children's services, Ms Hogg said: "I think we'd all recognise that there is more we could have done in this space previously, not least being open and honest with families and apologising when we've got things wrong. "We're absolutely committed to changing that and continuing to be open and honest."She admitted there was "room for improvement" over the culture in children's services adding: "Whether it is multi-professional simulation training or regular meetings, we're taking action to ensure that the teams work closer together and [are] continuing to listen to them and to families."She said there had been a reliance on temporary staff but that Skylark would be "fully recruited by October"."We've got relationships to rebuild and we don't underestimate that, but we are willing to put the time, effort and energy in because it's really important that children get safe care," she said. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
13-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
RAF Red Arrows raise money for Lincoln hospital children's wards
The RAF Red Arrows team has raised money for the children's wards at Lincoln County and support staff ran, swam, walked, rowed and cycled 8,000 miles (12,875 km), the distance to and from their home base of RAF Waddington to their pre-season training camps in Croatia and the end of the month-long deployment they had raised £460 for the Rainforest and Safari Hospitals charity manager Ben Petts said he was delighted to receive the donation. "The Red Arrows have generously supported us for several years and this latest donation brings the total amount raised to over £3,500," he said."We can use these funds to purchase extra pieces of equipment for the children's ward which will improve the lives of our young patients, their families and the staff who care for them."Staff from the children's wards recently visited RAF Waddington to meet some of the team's engineers who completed the challenge and witness an aerobatic of the visitors play leader Karen O'Connor expressed her thanks to the crew. "We are so grateful to the support from the Red Arrows team and the time they give to visit the ward and bring a little Christmas cheer to the children and families over the festive season," she to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Click here, to download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and here, to download the BBC News app from Google Play for Android devices.
