DOZENS of families have suffered and some lost their babies because of NHS maternity failures, an inquiry is to reveal.
An investigation into problems at East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust will be published today.
3
3
Ministers ordered a review in 2020 after the deaths of at least seven babies born in hospitals run by the foundation.
The trust’s chief executive, Tracey Fletcher, warned staff that the report would be “appalling”. Sky News reported.
It comes after the Ockenden Report revealed in March that 201 babies and nine mothers had died due to decades of NHS failings in Shrewsbury and Telford.
At least 200 families’ cases were examined in the Kent inquiry.
Anita Jewitt, a medical malpractice lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Unfortunately, this latest review is not an isolated incident.
“Too many maternity reviews highlight similar issues across the country and it is vital that changes are made to prevent more heartache for families in the future.”
East Kent NHS Trust is one of the largest in England and operates hospitals in Dover, Canterbury, Margaret, Ashford and Folkestone.
It was fined £733,000 last year for failings which led to the death of baby Harry Richford in 2017, whose family have campaigned for answers.
Parents Sarah and Tom said their son’s birth was “botched” by staff at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margaret, and the coroner ruled his death could have been avoided.
The inquiry is expected to find that services are suffering from understaffing and a culture of bullying.
A report by the Care Quality Commission rated maternity care in hospitals as ‘requires improvement’ – the second worst grade, above ‘inadequate’.
The report’s author, Dr Bill Kirkup, said today that things needed to be done differently before it was published.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “When I was reporting on maternity services in Morecambe Bay in 2015, I could never have imagined that I would be back seven years later talking about quite similar circumstances and what was b two more big, high-profile maturity failures as well on top of that.
“This cannot continue. We have to deal with it differently.
“We can’t just respond to each one as if it’s a one-off, as if it’s the last time. We have to do things differently.”
He added that those involved in compiling the report had heard many “horror stories” from families involved.
“Later I’ll set it all up first for families and then for everyone, but there were a lot of common factors.
“My heart goes out to everyone that this happened to,” he added.
