The Care Quality Commission has fined Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,250 for failing to apologise to a family in a reasonable period of time.

CQC issued a fixed penalty notice to the trust because it had failed to comply with the Duty of Candour – the regulation that requires providers to be open and honest with patients or their families if there is an incident in which they suffer harm.    

In this case a baby had been admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary in July 2016, but there were delays in diagnosing his condition and missed opportunities to admit him to hospital.   Although the trust recorded it as a notifiable safety incident, the family were not informed and did not receive an apology until October.

Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said:

"Under the Duty of Candour, all providers are required to be open with patients or their families when something goes wrong that appears to have caused significant harm.

“The action that we have taken against Bradford Teaching Hospitals does not relate to the care provided to this baby, but to the fact that the trust was slow to inform the family that there had been delays and missed opportunities in the treatment of their child. Patients or their families are entitled to the truth and to an apology as soon as practical after the incident – which didn’t happen in this case.”

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