The health secretary has promised an independent investigation of the death of a baby whose ‘incredibly distressing’ case highlighted a regulatory ‘gap’ in the NHS’s ability to probe historic complaints.
Jeremy Hunt told HSJ he had intervened in the “frankly heart breaking” case of Elizabeth Dixon after her family’s concerns had been “passed around the system” for “far too long”.
He said NHS England patient safety director Mike Durkin would commission an independent investigation of the case in his new role in charge of patient safety at NHS Improvement – the regulator to be formed by merging Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority.
Elizabeth was born prematurely at Frimley Park Hospital in 2000. She was left with permanent brain damage after hospital staff failed to monitor or treat her high blood pressure, and in 2001 she died of suffocation when a newly qualified nurse failed to keep her breathing tube clear. The cause of her brain damage was only confirmed in 2013.
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Exclusive Hunt orders investigation of regulatory gap baby
Elizabeth Dixon
Filed under: Hospital, NHS Blunders, Jeremy Hunt, Medical Blunders
