Phones went unanswered in criticised children's ward

Julie Hogg was appointed as Kettering's chief nurse in July 2024

A report into a hospital children's ward found phones went unanswered, some staff behaved unprofessionally and policies were repeatedly breached.

A coroner ruled that a 13-year-old girl died because of neglect at Kettering General Hospital and dozens of families have raised concerns in recent years about the care received.

An internal NHS report obtained by the BBC found recurrent misdiagnoses and delays in "critical decisions for high-risk cases".

Chief nurse Julie Hogg said the hospital had "relationships to rebuild" adding that it was "willing to put the time, effort and energy in because it's really important that children get safe care".

The families - including those whose children died or became seriously ill - told the BBC in 2023 of repeated failures to diagnose life-threatening illnesses and regular discharging of patients who required urgent care.

Shortly after that, the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), rated the hospital's children's and young people's services "inadequate", though this has since been upgraded to "requiring improvement".

A coroner ruled neglect and a series of failures led to the death of Chloe Longster in 2022, who had sepsis and pneumonia on the Skylark paediatric ward.

Chloe Longster died at Kettering General Hospital in November 2022

After further concerns were raised, a "rapid quality review" was carried out by the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board in November 2024.

The results of that internal review have been obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.

It found that insufficient senior medical support impacted life-saving interventions for patients with sepsis. The review said "we are regularly breaching our own policies" on this.

The review described "ongoing evidence of unprofessional behaviours among nursing and medical staff" and highlighted delayed responses to calls, unanswered phones and resistance to patient escalation.

Another issue raised was that critically ill patients risked having care delayed because "we are managing [them] on a whiteboard".

The review also found:

• The paediatric emergency department was "not adequately designed for emergency interventions". The hospital said it was mitigating this with extra staff

• Ongoing delays in transferring patients to wards, "exacerbated by poor communication and unanswered phones"

• Staffing increased after the CQC visited "then stopped when CQC no longer focusing on the area"

• There had been an occasion in which just one paediatric nurse was on duty in the entire ward. The review found the nurse felt the "ward could be so dangerous it needs closed down"

Kettering General Hospital's children's services have had longstanding issues

Ms Hogg - who was appointed in July 2024 - told the BBC: "Colleagues are working really hard together to provide the very best care that they can.

"It's clear that there is room for improvement, and I think the majority of patients that come to Kettering General get a good experience, but we need to continue to listen and learn to ensure that our services are as safe as they possibly can be."

Asked how confident she was of embedding changes, Ms Hogg said: "I think the first step... is being open and honest and acknowledging that we've got a problem."

Asked whether she believed the hospital had been transparent about failings in children's services, Ms Hogg said: "I think we'd all recognise that there is more we could have done in this space previously, not least being open and honest with families and apologising when we've got things wrong.

"We're absolutely committed to changing that and continuing to be open and honest."

She admitted there was "room for improvement" over the culture in children's services adding: "Whether it is multi-professional simulation training or regular meetings, we're taking action to ensure that the teams work closer together and [are] continuing to listen to them and to families."

She said there had been a reliance on temporary staff but that Skylark would be "fully recruited by October".

"We've got relationships to rebuild and we don't underestimate that, but we are willing to put the time, effort and energy in because it's really important that children get safe care," she said.