SWINDON’S Great Western Hospital has been told to improve its child safeguarding measures following a review into the death of young boy at the hands of his father.

Jordan Saxton, of Faringdon, was jailed for nine years last October for shaking his 11-week-old son Jayden to death in November 2014.

A serious case review published this week looked at the actions of all agencies involved in the case, including those of GWH.

Baby Jayden was taken by ambulance to GWH in the early evening of November 17. Saxton told emergency call handlers that his son had got something stuck after coughing while being fed.

Jayden had to be resuscitated upon arrival at GWH and his condition was so severe that he was later transferred to Bristol for specialist care.

Although hospital staff quickly realised that his injuries might have been caused deliberately, they didn’t inform social services or the police until the early hours of the following morning.

They also told Jayden’s parents that they suspected a non-accidental injury but let them leave the hospital anyway.

The report finds that those delays could have had a direct impact on the police investigation, remarking that “it is fortuitous that there was a successful prosecution in these circumstances.”

The intense workload faced by the emergency paediatric team on the night is said to have been a factor in the lack of an early safeguarding discussion.

The review concluded that GWH “does not have a system of specialist safeguarding advice out of hours.”

In fact it was only when a doctor in Bristol spoke to the GWH team later that the delay in calling social services was realised.

The review team also discussed whether the parents should have been informed of concerns about the cause of the injuries and then allowed to leave alone.

A second child was also allowed to leave with a close relative.

They concluded that “in these circumstances, doctors need to balance their responsibility to keep parents informed of all the possible diagnoses with the need to protect the child and siblings.”

The problem in this case was that them being told was combined with a delay in any contact with police and social services.

In response to the serious case review, GWH have been asked to provide assurances to both the Clinical Commissioning Group and the Swindon Safeguarding Children Board that adequate safeguarding measures are now in place – including out of hours.

A spokesman for the Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our absolute priority is the safety and wellbeing of our patients and we regularly work with the police and social services to raise concerns.

“All our staff have access to specialist safeguarding advice 24/7, however our immediate priority will always be to provide the clinical treatment needed by the patient at the time.

“A consultant paediatrician is available 24/7 to offer specialist safeguarding advice and a consultant paediatrician was involved in the care of this patient.”