The parents of a young woman who "starved to death" in hospital have said that "nothing has changed" in the six years since her death. Laura Jane Booth was 21 when she died as a result of malnourishment, following a three-year stay in hospital.
Laura spent the first 18 years of her life at Sheffield Children's Hospital, with mother Patricia Booth, 62, describing the care her daughter received there as "fantastic". Laura was then transferred to the Hallamshire Hospital where she stayed until her death in 2016.
An inquest into Laura's death found there had been a "gross failure of care" when it came to the management of her feeding. Laura was born with a rare genetic condition called partial trisomy 13, meaning she possessed one extra chromosome 13, instead of two, reports Yorkshire Live.
Her development was severely disrupted due to the condition, with the young woman possessing a number of complex learning disabilities and was non-verbal. Patricia believes her daughter's mental capacity was a contributing factor in the way that doctors managed her care and at the inquest the coroner agreed there were concerns about the doctors' understanding of the Mental Capacity Act.
Patricia said: "The coroner ruled Laura's death unlawful, but what does unlawful mean to them? Because they just walk back into their jobs. Laura had learning disabilities and complex medical conditions, they kept trying to blame it on that all the time."
Laura's inquest found that neglect contributed to the young woman's death and coroner Abigail Combes, concluded that malnourishment had also played a key part in Laura's death. Ms Combes said: "Among other illnesses, she also developed malnutrition due to inadequate management of her nutritional needs. Her death was contributed to by neglect."
Ms Combes concluded that the hospital had acted "unlawfully" in the decisions that it made about Laura's feeding, and she said that she remained "gravely concerned" about senior doctors’ understanding of the Mental Capacity Act. At the time, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that they acknowledged decisions around feeding Laura 'were a contributory factor to the timing of her death' and said they were 'truly sorry'.
But, six years on from Laura's death, her heartbroken parents feel that "nothing has changed", as they respond to a damning report by the Care Quality Commission, which found that the safety of patients at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital is "inadequate". The report, which was published earlier this month, also found that all other hospital services "required improvement" and that failings were causing "avoidable harm" to patients.
Patricia said: "The report really knocked us for six, we weren't surprised but to see it on paper you think 'they've not learnt lessons', they said they were going to learn lessons from Laura's death but they've not learnt any. Laura died in 2016 and it's no different, it's just as bad.
"No one's been accountable for it, all the doctors have got away with it and that's what's really annoyed us. It's six years in October when we lost Laura and, six years down the line, there's still no accountability for it."
Patricia said that Laura had first been under the care of Sheffield Children's Hospital, for 18 years, before being transitioned to adult care at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. She praised staff at the Children's Hospital and said that the care Laura had received was "fantastic".
She added: "They were fantastic and I've got so much admiration for that hospital. The doctors always included us in everything; they told Laura everything, they told her what was happening and what they were going to do.
"We were like a team, we all worked with the doctors there and it was fantastic. But, at the Hallamshire, they told us that 'we don't do that here' and they don't gel together. Things like that for our Laura didn't work, Laura was only there for three years and then she was gone."
Following Laura's death, her mum Patricia and her dad, Kenneth, 65, have been campaigning tirelessly for better care of those with complex needs such as Laura's. Posting on their 'Justice for Laura Jane Booth' Twitter account, the couple said: "We Have no word to describe how we feel about why is this trust allowed to continue running Sheffield hospitals with a safety rating of inadequate nothing makes sense anymore".
Patricia added: "All we've ever wanted to do is to try and stop families going through this heartbreak that we've been through, it still hurts as much now as it did then, because we just loved her so much and she was our life. If we can stop a family going through this, then we would do."
Responding to the CQC report, Kirsten Major, chief executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are all devastated with the outcome of the inspection because there is not one person within the Trust who does not want to do the right thing for our patients and has not worked hard to try and deliver that in exceptional circumstances. That is why we are taking it extremely seriously and I will be doing everything in my power to support our staff and make the improvements we need to deliver.
"We have already taken action that will help us improve including recruiting over 500 new nurses who are now working on the wards, and there have been changes to our maternity services including investing in more midwives. We are also in the process of buying a new electronic patient record system which once implemented will be less onerous for staff to use and join up different bits of patient information into one place.
"We have listened to feedback from staff and the CQC and are simplifying many of our processes including how incidents are reported and risks are managed so that we can be more responsive and share learning quicker than at present. Everyone in the Trust has given their all during the past two years to manage the demands of the pandemic and we are determined to address the issues raised in this report with the same commitment."
Ms Major added: "I want to assure our patients that our top priority will always be to do our very best for everyone who needs our care. We are pleased that the CQC felt our staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, worked as a team to benefit patients, were committed to improving services and that we had enough medical staff to care for patients and keep them safe.
"They also recognised that leaders supported staff to develop their skills and infection risks were managed well. Our outcomes for treatment, mortality rates and patient feedback are testament to this, but there is no denying that the last two years have turned so much of what we did as routine on its head.
"We have asked our staff to rise to unprecedented challenges and change the way they worked on almost a daily basis as COVID surged and declined in waves. We have had less staff at times including when the inspection took place because of high staff COVID sickness and there is no doubt that some of our normal ways of working or delivering care suffered because of the focus we had to have on dealing with the immediate crisis in front of us at the same time as continuing to deliver emergency and cancer care plus as many planned operations as we could and leading the vaccination programme for South Yorkshire."
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