Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

3. Miss X complains about aspects of care before and during the time she gave birth at the Trust in December 2023. Miss X specifically says: • She was left alone to give birth in the hospital • The Trust recorded Miss X had a midwife with her during the birth of her baby but this is not true

• She was advised by a doctor on 13 December 2023 that her baby would not be living when born at 21 weeks; however, her baby was alive for a short while after being born

• Miss X was not given any prenatal care until she was 21 weeks pregnant.

4. Miss X says the failings led to her baby dying prematurely. This caused her significant trauma and distress. Miss X further says she suffered significant trauma and distress from giving birth alone in the hospital. Due to these events Miss X says she required therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

5. As an outcome of this complaint Miss X would like acknowledgement of the failings and she seeks financial compensation.

8. The ‘Health Service Commissioners Act 1993’ says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to get an answer to their concerns by taking legal action, unless we consider this is unreasonable in the circumstances.

9. We have discussed this with Miss X to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. Miss X told us aspects of the Trust’s care and treatment led to her baby’s premature death, which is clearly an extremely serious impact, and that she is looking for a significant financial remedy as a result. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

10. There may be a legal course of action available. Miss X may be able to make a legal claim for clinical negligence for the issues she has raised. Negligence, in law, is an act or failure to act (omission), that does not meet the level of appropriate care expected, which results in injury or loss. If a doctor or health professional is negligent when giving you medical treatment, this is called ‘clinical negligence’.

11. While we can make recommendations for financial remedy where we see something has gone wrong, and where that has had an impact, the amounts we recommend are usually more modest than those awarded by the legal system. This is because we use a different approach to considering financial remedy.

12. In our telephone discussion, we explored with Miss X whether there were any barriers to her exploring legal action, given the financial remedy she seeks. She explained there were no barriers and so we agreed Miss X would explore taking legal action.

13. At this point in time, we are satisfied there are potential legal routes available for Miss X to pursue her concerns, which may provide the outcomes she seeks. It appears reasonable for her to explore those routes, and so we are not able to take any further action.

14. If Miss X explores legal action and her circumstances change in such a way that it is no longer reasonable for her to pursue that route, or if she takes legal action and still has unresolved issues or outcomes that cannot be considered or remedied by the courts, she can ask us to consider her complaint again. If she does decide to return to us, she should bring her complaint back to us promptly. This is because we would need to consider our own time limits for a person to complain to us, in line with the ‘Health Service Commissioners Act 1993’.

15. We are very sorry to hear about what happened to Miss X and how this has affected her. We thank her for bringing her concerns to us and hope this statement clearly explains why we will not be considering her concerns further at this time.

1. We have carefully considered Miss X’s complaint about the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (the Trust). Miss X complained about aspects of the care and treatment the Trust provided to her, which she says contributed to her baby’s premature death. We were very sorry to hear about the difficult time Miss X had, and the impact this had and continues to have.

2. We have decided to not take further action at this time because we consider it is reasonable for Miss X to explore taking legal action on the issues she brought to us. We explain further below.