James Paget Hospital: Mum whose baby died due to maternity errors 'shocked' at damning CQC report

A mother whose baby died at a failing maternity unit said she was "shocked" at a damning new report which found that mothers and babies were still not being kept safe at the "inadequate" department.

Natasha Garforth, 42, went to the maternity unit at the James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) in Norfolk in October 2018 to be induced, happy and excited to welcome her first child.

But after a series of failings, her daughter - whom she named Catarina - died during an emergency Caesarian section.

Last year, the hospital admitted fault and settled a case out of court.

On Wednesday the CQC published a damning report warning that the hospital must take "urgent action" to improve its "inadequate" maternity service.

For Ms Garforth, the report brought back devastating memories.

She told ITV News Anglia: "It wasn't an easy read but I just felt completely unsurprised.

"It all seemed so familiar. The failures that were reported today are the very same failures that I saw when I was in there.

"I'm not shocked by the findings, but I am shocked that after everything we went through, nothing has changed. Nothing has changed at all."

Inspectors found the maternity unit at the JPUH in Gorleston-on-Sea did not have enough staff to keep women and babies safe.

Among a catalogue of other failures found, inspectors said staff did not always control infection risks well.

Some women were put at risk as they waited too long for treatment, and there was little evidence that managers monitored waiting times, or made sure women could access emergency services when they needed them.Ms Garforth said: "What happened to us was earth-shattering. Me and my husband went into that hospital and we came out completely different people.

"It affected our whole world, all our family.

"Our youngest daughter - the child we had after we lost Catarina - said just the other day that she wanted a sister but I just couldn't. "I couldn't go back into that place and do it all again."

"To be honest, there are some fantastic members of staff in that department, but there are also some who are complacent.

"And there is obviously a lack of training too, which isn't the fault of the staff, but it means they can't cope."

A spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement: "The trust referred this case for investigation and review by the independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, to identify any recommendations to improve patient safety and learning.

"Any baby loss is a tragedy and our sympathies remain with the family."For Ms Garforth, any changes the trust now makes in light of the new report will come too late - but she said it was important to her that other families did not go through the same experiences she did.

"I just don't want this to happen again, because it changes your entire life.

"I know I shouldn't blame myself, but sometimes I do and I think to myself, maybe I should have screamed in agony or rolled around on the floor. Maybe then they would have taken more notice of me.

"I knew something wasn't right but I was trying to stay calm and be polite and politely express how I was feeling. I wasn't listened to. And they're still not listening to people now.

"Something has got to change now. We had hoped that after what we went through, things would improve.

"When we dealt with the hospital last year, we were told that things have changed - obviously they haven't."

Responding to the CQC report, the hospital's chief executive Jo Segasby admitted the findings were "alarming", and apologised to the mothers and children who had been failed.

"We take it all very seriously," she said. "We've accepted the report completely and the recommendations that we need to make so [we remain] focused on all the actions that are needed in there.

"How we support our staff and the women and families that are coming through our services right now is really important to us."

She said the JPUH was getting help from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and regional teams to "make those changes that we need to make".

"We've increased the number of staff on our maternity inpatient ward, we've also recruited medical staff, [and] we have also improved how we record incidents and react to those incidents as they occur to make sure we're learning appropriately," she added.

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