Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust director resigns after suspension

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust runs King's Mill Hospital, Mansfield Community Hospital and Newark Hospital

A Nottinghamshire hospital trust director has stepped down after receiving a year-long suspension.

David Ainsworth resigned from the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust's board of directors on Thursday.

A misconduct hearing found he had misused his position of authority and put patients at risk of harm.

The hearing was told Mr Ainsworth missed "red flags" of sepsis in a child and fast-tracked a colleague through the emergency care system.

A "pattern of dishonesty" from Mr Ainsworth was noted by the panel during his practice as a nurse, in which he occupied positions of seniority or authority at both Nottingham Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) and the local CCG (clinical commissioning group).

'Actions were serious'

The hearing, which was held between 21 and 23 February, considered incidents from between 2018 and 2020.

Simeon Wallis presented the Nursing and Midwifery Council's case, saying Mr Ainsworth's dishonesty was "not limited to a single occasion".

Mr Wallis said the former director's actions were serious and effectively an attempt to evade responsibility for situations in which a direct risk of harm to patients had been created by an error of his judgement, even though no harm materialised.

The panel said in January 2019, Mr Ainsworth failed to refer a child with sepsis, referred to as Patient A, instead providing the wrong information to the patient's mother and sent them to a pharmacy.

Mr Ainsworth did not make a record of the conversation, and falsely reported that Patient A's rash "did fade" and that the patient's mother declined a review, the panel added.

In September 2019, the panel said Mr Ainsworth incorrectly interpreted the blood test results of another patient, asking them to attend a repeat blood test "when they should have been asked to go to A&E immediately".

The trust issued a statement to confirm Mr Ainsworth had resigned from his role as director of strategy and partnerships, saying he "leaves with our best wishes and we thank him for all that he achieved during his time with the trust".