Hospital bosses have apologised to the family of a four-week-old Keighley baby girl who suffered a head injury and broken leg when she was dropped by a disabled child.

Humara Ali was injured after she was lifted from her cot at Airedale General Hospital by the boy, who had crawled into ward 17 from a nearby room. None of the four nurses understood to be on duty at the time saw the incident happen.

Airedale NHS Trust chiefs will hold a risk management meeting on Tuesday to investigate ways of preventing such an occurrence happening again.

But they have defended staffing levels in the child care ward where Humara was admitted on December 19 with a chesty cough. She is recovering at home from her injuries but still suffers pain when lifted, according to her family.

Today her father Mumtaz Ali, 29, of Craven Road, Keighley, spoke after a 90-minute meeting with hospital managers. He said he was still concerned that the incident was allowed to happen.

"They said a disabled child crawled from his bed in a room next to the ward and went to my daughter's cot, grabbed her and dropped her," he said.

"They reckon nobody saw him but there were 16 patients on the ward and four nurses. They have apologised to me and said they will take steps to stop it happening again."

Airedale NHS Trust director of nursing Sue Franks said today: "We have expre-ssed our sincere apologies. We outlined the events leading up to the accident and we were able to confirm the ward was fully staffed.

"Both children were regularly observed and we were also able to confirm this was an incident which was discovered very quickly."

The risk management meeting will also discuss a police report into the incident, try to determine how the accident could have happened and review policies and procedures to find how it could be prevented from happening again, she added.

A West Yorkshire police child protection unit spokes-man said: "We are satisfied the baby did not sustain these injuries through any criminal act. Due to the ages of the children involved and the fact that no suspicious circumstances had been identified, police will not be releasing any further information."