“In this case, I heard that over the weekend and overnight Neonatology Consultants are not…”

The coroner’s concerns

In this case, I heard that over the weekend and overnight Neonatology Consultants are not available immediately on site at either the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath or the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. I heard that on-call Consultants over the weekend are on site at Brighton for some of the period but for the majority they are contactable by telephone in the first instance only. I heard that the Trust position is that this is not unusual in many settings as Consultants are not intended to be the first responders to emergency calls. At University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”), the on-call Consultant covers both the Princess Royal Hospital and the Royal Sussex County Hospital. These two sites are not close in proximity, and I heard that the traffic impacts on the time it would take for a Consultant to attend. The on-call Consultant does not always have access to an emergency vehicle and if called to attend either site would use their own vehicle and be subject to the usual road traffic laws. I heard that the Trust practice, as opposed to Policy, is that the on-call Consultant cannot be more than 30 minutes from either Brighton or Haywards Heath. The Trust facilitates accommodation at Brighton for the on-call Consultant so that they are within 30 minutes of Brighton if required. I was told that the arrangements for Neonatal care at the Princess Royal are in accordance with the British Association of Perinatal Medicine guidelines and that there is no national guidance as to the time that an on-call Neonatology Consultant should be expected to attend a hospital in the event of an emergency or as to whether multiple sites can be covered by one on-call Consultant. Whilst I did not find the timing of the attendance of the on-call Consultant causative or contributory in relation to Felix’s death, I am concerned that the time period in which attendance is made may vary and create a risk of future deaths.

An extract. Read the full report, including the circumstances of the death, on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.

Source

judiciary.uk, Prevention of Future Deaths reports, 2024-0475

Added to Minute Book

8 Oct 2026

Reuse

We show short extracts and link to the original. We don’t host the full report.

Something wrong, such as a date or who it was sent to? Report a mistake

Is this report about someone close to you? You can ask us to remove names from our pages.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, judiciary.uk. Open Government Licence v3.0