NHS trust fined for ‘unnecessary tragedy’

NHS trust Southern Health has been fined £2m for Health and Safety at Work breaches after two patients died in its care. Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, drowned in a bath in Oxford, and Teresa Colvin, 45, died in Hampshire. The trust pleaded guilty. Sentencing the trust at Oxford Crown Court, in R v Southern Health, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said each death was an ‘unnecessary human tragedy’ and the trust was responsible for ‘serious and systemic failings’. He imposed a fine ‘towards the lower end of the [£1.5m to £6m] category range’ because of the trust’s lack of surplus funds and its cooperative conduct in the later stages of the case.