The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has been fined more than £1.3m at Telford Magistrates’ Court for safety failings linked to the deaths of pensioner Max Dingle and dialysis patient Mohammed Ismael Zaman.
Passing sentence, Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring said the families of two patients who died at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in 2019 and 2020 had suffered “unimaginable grief”.
The judge imposed a fine of £800,000 on one of two charges relating to the death of 31-year-old Mohammed Ismael Zaman, and an additional £533,334 over a charge brought in relation to the death of Max Dingle, aged 83.
The judge said the offences were aggravated by a fine the Trust received in 2016 and a “poor health and safety record in the management of” the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Mr Goldspring added that the charges were mitigated by the Trust carrying out “full and extensive investigations immediately after both incidents”.
The trust, which was recently the subject of a highly critical report into the maternity services it offered between 2000 and 2019, admitted the charges through its barrister at Telford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Mr Zaman died after suffering severe blood loss while undergoing dialysis in 2019, the court heard.
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Another charge was brought against the trust by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over the death of Mr Dingle, who died in May 2020 after his head became trapped between a bed rail and a mattress.
Opening the facts of the case against the trust, the CQC’s lawyer Ryan Donoghue said the failures in care provided to Mr Zaman “were the legal cause of his death, for which the trust is responsible”.
Referring to the death of Mr Dingle, Mr Donoghue said: “The basis (of the guilty plea) is that the failures exposed him to a significant risk of avoidable harm.”
In a victim impact statement which was read to the court, Mr Dingle’s son Phil said they had shared a “very special bond” for 57 years.
He also paid tribute to the retired policeman, who lived in Newtown in mid-Wales, as a “mountain of a man” who was always the source of great advice.
Read more: The worst maternity scandal in the history of the NHS
The trust’s barrister, Iain Daniels, described the deaths as “two tragedies”.
Offering the trust’s sincere sympathies to the men’s families, Mr Daniels said the trust acknowledged that training had been inadequate.
“We suggest the trust has shown considerable insight into what has gone wrong in these accidents”, he told the court.
“It is accepted that more could have been done and, of course, should have been done to eliminate risks.”
The trust, which costs £1.3m a day to operate, is suffering significant financial pressures and has around 600 vacant staff positions.
