Children's ward faced 'significant challenges'

Children's services accused of leaving a hospital's young patients traumatised face "significant challenges", its chief nurse has admitted.

Dozens of families, including those whose children died or became seriously ill, raised concerns about Kettering General Hospital's care with the BBC in 2023.

Since then, a coroner has ruled neglect and a series of failures led to the death of 13-year-old Chloe Longster in 2022.

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire's chief nurse, Julie Hogg, said a full review of children's services was launched after concerns were found in the autumn and improvements were being made.

A BBC investigation in 2023 revealed allegations spanning more than 20 years about the treatment of patients on Skylark ward, a children's unit.

Michaela Stevens said she believed her then 17-month-old son - who lost 500g (1.1lbs) on the ward - was "lucky to be alive".

The claims included repeated failures to diagnose life-threatening illnesses and the regular discharge of patients who required urgent care.

After being rated inadequate by the care regulator, the chief executive at the time, Deborah Needham, apologised and said the report had a "clear message... of the need to significantly improve the way we deliver children and young people's services".

Improvements at the hospital were later noted by the regulator and the local NHS did a "rapid quality review" to assess safety concerns in urgent and emergency care in November.

However, at a hospital board meeting last month, it was said "learning has not been embedded and sustained" and there were "concerns about culture" in the paediatric services.

Ms Hogg told the BBC: "In autumn last year, it became apparent that we had significant challenges within our children's services.

"Our teams took swift and comprehensive action, making some immediate changes while launching a full review of our children's services."

She said the hospital had set up a patient engagement programme, introduced a twice-daily safety huddle and had started a "cultural review".

She said it was focused on improving, and added: "Some of this work will take time to do properly, but we will be doing this correctly to not just make, but also embed, the changes.

"We have been engaging closely with our staff, listening to patient concerns and investing in ways to address the issues that have arisen.

"Our aim is to develop a paediatric service that delivers high quality, sympathetic and personal care to children and their families. We want our colleagues to feel fully supported in their jobs with a clear vision of what we are working together to achieve."

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