Failure to communicate treatment options, what to expect and funeral information after miscarriage
The complaint
Miss O complained about the care and treatment Barts Health NHS Trust gave her in 2020.
After going to a labour ward in hospital, she sadly miscarried her daughter.
She said staff did not discuss pain relief with her, did not explain what to expect, left her alone for a long time and did not respond when she asked for help.
She also said the hospital’s mortuary did not tell her about her daughter’s funeral and where she was buried.
She wanted the Trust to improve its service to stop this happening again. She also wanted compensation to recognise the serious distress the experience caused.
What we found
Healthcare professionals did not discuss pain relief options with Miss O or explain what medication they were giving her.
There was poor communication about what to expect when experiencing a miscarriage in the second trimester (the middle three months of pregnancy, from around week 13 to week 27). This caused Miss O a lot of distress because she did not know what was happening or if her daughter would survive.
There was also a lack of support and observation from staff during her miscarriage. Miss O miscarried her daughter alone, onto the floor, and her partner had to get help.
After Miss O left the hospital, the mortuary service poorly communicated the date for her daughter’s funeral, buried her without the family there, and gave incorrect information about where she was buried.
These failings led to Miss O experiencing pain longer than necessary. They made a traumatic experience worse, affected her mental wellbeing, and made her anxious about going to hospital when she became pregnant again. The mortuary’s errors added to her distress and affected her ability to grieve.
Putting things right
We said the Trust should improve its service to women experiencing second-trimester miscarriages. This included improving its processes so all women in labour can get one-to-one care.
We also said it should improve the mortuary service’s communication about funeral arrangements. This included speaking to family members over the phone where possible.
We said the Trust should make an action plan explaining how it will make these improvements, when it will do this by, and who will do it.
We recommended the Trust apologise to Miss O and pay her compensation for how its failings affected her.