A hospital has apologised after taking responsibility for a pregnant woman's death.

Reeta Saidha was 15 weeks pregnant when her waters broke in December.

She died five days later at Basildon Hospital after contracting sepsis.

Dr Neerja Gupta was the on-call consultant in the gynaecology ward on December 21 and was overseeing the doctors who were monitoring and treating Reeta.

That afternoon doctors were still waiting for a natural abortion to take place but the fetus had begun causing sepsis in Reeta's body.

Dr Gupta claims that on this 'particularly complex and busy day' she had not known of Reeta's deterioration until three hours after the initial sepsis diagnosis at 1pm that afternoon.

"I was not aware that she was diagnosed with sepsis until 4pm and I think it would be appropriate to have been told about Reeta's condition at about 1.15pm," she said.

However, Dr Gupta did not go and personally examine Reeta after being made aware of her worsening state because of a more desperate case on the floor.

Dr Amita Sahare who was the registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology on call on overnight into December 22 said that the decision to escalate the case after Reeta began complaining about severe chest pain.

She also claimed that had her handover form been more detailed, she would have prioritised attending to Reeta instead of seeing two other patients prior, despite being aware that Reeta already had sepsis.

"I arrived at 8pm and I saw her for the first time at 11.15pm because I had to deal with two emergencies prior to that," she said.

"I prioritise my activity based on the handover that I am given and I did not see her earlier because my handover did not show how serious her condition was.

"After seeing her It became clear that she needed to be exacuated to intensive care because by now she was suffering from severe sepsis and needed to be transferred."

Reeta was then rushed into theatre to remove the baby.

Today at Chelmsdord Coroner's Court, Caroline Beasley-Murray gave a narrative conclusion to her death.

Basildon Hospital has apologised following the mum-of-two's death.

A hospital spokesman said: "We wish to express our deep regret at the tragic death of Mrs Reeta Saidha and offer our heartfelt condolences to her family.

"We are offering Mr Saidha and his family a full and sincere apology for missing the opportunity to prevent Mrs Saidha’s death. We appreciate that this does not in any way diminish the loss or distress caused to Mrs Saidha’s family.

"We are extremely concerned about any cases where we fail to provide a safe standard of care to our patients. We have carried out a thorough internal investigation into this incident and changes to our policies and procedures have already been implemented as a result. Our clinical teams have worked hard and continue to work to learn from this tragedy to try to ensure similar events do not happen again.

"We acknowledge the findings of the Coroner and will be reflecting further on her conclusions. Senior members of the Trust have been present throughout the inquest to ensure that issues raised during this process are appropriately addressed throughout our organisation."