Stafford Hospital fined £200k over Gillian Astbury's death
A diabetic patient was let down by a the system at Stafford Hospital, a judge said, as he fined the trust which runs it £200,000 for the poor care that led to her death.
Gillian Astbury died at the hospital in 2007 when she was not given insulin despite being diabetic.
Passing sentence on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, High Court judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave described the 66-year-old's death as tragic and wholly avoidable.
Mrs Astbury, from Hednesford, Staffordshire, died in the early hours of April 11, 2007, after lapsing into a diabetic coma while being treated for fractures to her arm and pelvis.
The trust, which was also ordered to pay £27,049.74 in costs, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety law last October at Stafford Magistrates' Court, having previously apologised for its poor care of Mrs Astbury.
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said responsibility for the failures at the time of Mrs Astbury's death lay with senior managers at the trust, which was criticised by a public inquiry for the 'routine' neglect of patients between 2005 and 2009.
He said: "This was a wholly avoidable and tragic death of a vulnerable patient who was admitted to hospital for care but died because of the lack of it."
The criminal investigation into Mrs Astbury's death found staff at the hospital did not follow, or sometimes even look at, medical notes that clearly stated she needed insulin, regular blood tests and a special diet.
Among five aggravating features of the case identified by the judge was the fact that they occurred amid a 'general malaise' in standards and priorities at Stafford Hospital between 2004 and 2007. The judge said: "The underlying causes of the breaches and the malaise were fundamental organisational and managerial failures, which can be traced to the very top of the organisation."
In assessing the size of the fine, the judge accepted that the Trust had shown a high degree of co-operation with the authorities, and had been 'entirely candid' about its failures. The court heard that the hospital had undergone radical change since Mrs Astbury's death while the entire senior management at the time of the death no longer work at the trust, set to be dissolved later this year.
