GWH should have faced courts (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

GWH should have faced courts

8:33am Tuesday 8th July 2008

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THE Wiltshire coroner has said he wants to see Great Western Hospital prosecuted over the death of nurse Mayra Cabrera.

David Masters said last week that the inquest into Mayra's death was the only occasion a hospital trust has ever been found responsible for corporate manslaughter.

Mr Masters also condemned the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute over the Filipino nurse's death.

Mr Masters said: "Det Insp Saunders led the police investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mayra Cabrera's tragic death at Great Western Hospital.

"I required him to carry out that investigation and the job he did was thorough, complex and exemplary. And concluded that she died from bupificane toxicity.

"The inquest lasted five weeks and on the evidence before them the jury decided the deceased had been unlawfully killed.

"In fact, the jury decided it was individual manslaughter and, for the first time in the country, corporate manslaughter on the part of the hospital trust - although I did not know it at the time of the close of the inquest.

"That was all down to the dedication of the officers concerned.

"Their detailed and thorough reports enabled the jury to reach that informed decision.

"They were a most effective team and should be commended.

"They had to undertake a crash course in medicine and its administration.

"As a result, the inquest papers have gone back to the CPS. I would very much like to see the hospital prosecuted.

"The police did send the papers to the CPS for consideration before the inquest, but they were sent back. Why they decided not to prosecute I have no idea."

Det Insp Saunders said it is down to the CPS to review the case papers and decide whether to prosecute.

"Because the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing that quite clearly presents the CPS with an issue," he said.

"Had it been put to a criminal trial rather than an inquest, the hospital could have been convicted of a criminal offence.

"Clearly, during the inquest itself additional details came out in the evidence given by witnesses."

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act came into force in 2007.

The act introduced a new offence, by which companies or organisations can be prosecuted where there has been a gross failing, throughout the organisation, in the management of health and safety with fatal consequences.

The verdict of Mayra's inquest ruled there had been gross failings within the hospital trust that led to Mayra's death.

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