A hospital children's ward was fully staffed when a four-week-old baby suffered serious injuries it was revealed yesterday.
Officials at Airedale General Hospital, Steeton, also said the children on the ward were regularly supervised the night baby Humara Ali sustained a fractured skull, broken leg and severe bruising.
The hospital's rejection of claims by Airedale Community Health Council that staffing levels at the hospital were on occasions at 'dangerous' levels was made in a statement issued after Humara's family met with hospital officials yesterday.
The hospital made a full apology to the family but denied that reduced staff on wards might have been a factor in the incident that saw Humara seriously injured by another child patient.
Police revealed that Humara, who had been admitted to ward 17 with a chesty cough on December 19, had been picked up and injured by a young child.
No further details have been released about the child responsible or how the incident had happened.
Humara's family met with director of nursing Sue Franks, general manager of children's and women's health Liz Calvert and consultant paediatrician Dr Gary Savil yesterday to get answers to their questions.
The hospital will hold a risk management meeting on Tuesday as part of its own investigations into the incident.
Communications manager Fiona Page said the meeting would involve the director of nursing, the general manager of women's and children's health, ward 17 manager, nursing staff, risk manager, police and social services.
She said: "At this meeting the trust will be discussing the police report and trying to determine how the accident could have happened and reviewing our policies and procedures to find how we could prevent it happening again."
The baby's father, Mumtaz Ali, of Craven Road, Keighley, does not accept the results of the police investigation. He said: "I just don't accept that the child they say did this did do it. I am really angry about it. The police didn't keep me informed about what was happening.
"In hospital you expect your child will be safe. The hospital told me they didn't even know how long she had been lying there.
"Where were the nurses when this happened? How could they not have known how long she had been laying there -- she was just four weeks old. Surely somebody must have seen or heard something."
Sue Franks said: "The trust has met with the family and we have again expressed our sincere apologies that baby Humara suffered this accident while in our care. We outlined the events leading up to the accident and we were able to confirm that the ward was fully staffed.
"Both children were regularly observed and we were also able to confirm that this was an incident which occurred and which was discovered very quickly."
West Yorkshire's specialist child protection unit said: "We were contacted after reports of a baby having sustained injuries while a patient at Airedale General Hospital. The injuries were potentially serious and inquiries were undertaken by specialist officers from the child protection unit. "Having conducted an investigation, we are satisfied that the baby did not sustain these injuries through any criminal act. It appears that the injuries resulted from an unusual and unfortunate accident involving another young child who was also a patient of the hospital at the time."
Humara is now recovering at home. Her father said: "She still gets pains and doesn't look well and she's still bandaged up."
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