RCPCH conducted a review of the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal service in 2016. As a Core Participant of the Inquiry, RCPCH has engaged fully throughout, including through its written evidence submissions and the oral evidence provided by witnesses. We acknowledge the report and recommendations made today.
Professor Steve Turner, RCPCH President, said:
At the heart of this Inquiry are the babies and their families, and our thoughts remain with them today. We apologise for our failings in commissioning the review and the subsequent report; we know that mistakes were made in accepting and undertaking the review. We acknowledge that this delayed families from establishing what had happened to their babies. We have been committed to working with the Inquiry since it was established, to ensure that lessons are learned both for the College and for the wider healthcare system across the UK.
We also recognise that the College did not sufficiently support our members at the Countess of Chester at the time, and we extend our apologies to them. These mistakes form part of our lessons learned.
We have taken the mistakes of the Invited Review seriously, learned important lessons, and significantly changed our Invited Review processes in the decade since the Countess of Chester review was undertaken. We now have a formal escalation policy for reviewers, new guidance on when to pause or abort a review, more rigorous reviewer training, and a due-diligence and risk-based approach before accepting review requests. Oversight of our review programme has also been strengthened, with more robust clinical governance provided by the College Registrar and regular reporting to our Board of Trustees.
The report makes a number of recommendations to improve the safety of babies in neonatal units, and children more broadly. The College will utilise any relevant expertise to provide further insight on these in due course.