The findings are truly shocking, and perhaps worryingly, may only tell a tiny part of the overall story.
An investigation into maternity care services at East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust today said that up to 45 babies may have survived had they received better treatment at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.
A further 12 babies may not have suffered brain damage and 23 mothers may not have died or been injured. Failings were also found in the care of a further 54 patients.
Remember, these findings are only from a sample of just 200 cases considered over an 11-year period. It is not a complete review of all maternity treatment provided in that time, and more of a snapshot of what was going wrong.
Perhaps the questions raised today are just how many more families have had their lives destroyed by such appalling care at East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust’s maternity services. And how many other maternity services in England and Wales are failing so badly?
‘Gross failures’ and ‘dysfunctional working’
The report has highlighted ‘gross failures’ of teams working across the trust’s maternity services and says ‘dysfunctional working’ between and within professional groups has been ‘fundamental to the suboptimal care provided in both hospitals’
It says problems among the midwifery staff and obstetric staff were known but not addressed and that the regulatory system failed to identify shortcomings early and clearly enough.
Chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup CBE, who also led a 2015 review into failings at Morecambe Bay Hospital which led to the deaths of 16 babies and three mothers, the review also highlighted the ‘uncompassionate care’ and ‘repeated failures to listen to families’.
Significantly, it was also concluded that the Trust had given the appearance of ‘covering up the scale and systemic nature” of its problems, with the report saying there had been ‘no evidence to convince us that this cycle has ended’.
This must be truly heartbreaking for many families who have lost babies due to negligent care and have campaigned for accountability, transparency and change.
As a solicitor who supports so many families who have been through the trauma of negligent maternity care, it is so frustrating to keep hearing of such failings on maternity wards.
People come to us for answers when things go wrong, and we always hope that our work helps to drive up standards by identifying where errors were made, paving the way for learnings and change. Today’s report, and the comments made by Dr Kirkup, suggests lessons are not being learned at all.
‘Denial the biggest thief of learning’
I recently attended the National Maternity Safety Conference in Birmingham, organised and hosted by mother and baby charity Baby Lifeline, which works tirelessly to help improve maternity care standards in the UK, and is a group we have passionately supported at Hudgell Solicitors for some time.
That conference heard from Derek Richford, who was instrumental in making this review of maternity services at East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust happen, following the tragic death of his grandson Harry in 2017.
Harry was born in Margate in an emergency delivery and transferred to the intensive neonatal unit at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, but later died. The Trust insisted a coroner did not need to be informed of his death and that an inquest was not required.
However, Harry’s family contested this and eventually secured an inquest which found his death was contributed to by neglect. An independent report also said he might have survived had there not been a delay in resuscitation at his birth that caused irreversible brain damage.
At the conference, Mr Richford spoke passionately about how difficult it had been to get to the truth of what happened when dealing with East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust.
He said he wanted to ensure lessons were learned to ensure future families didn’t suffer similar heartaches, and told the conference that ‘denial is the biggest thief of learning’. That message carries even more significance and poignancy today.
It is clear Dr Kirkup and his team believe denial continues to be a huge problem, warning that failings in Kent are not a “one-off”, and that if the NHS does not begin to tackle poor maternity care, more inquiries will follow.
“When I reported on Morecambe Bay maternity services in 2015, I did not imagine for one moment that I would be back in seven years’ time talking about a rather similar set of circumstances and that there would have been another two large, high-profile maternity failures as well on top of that,” he said.
“This cannot go on. We have to address this in a different way. We can’t simply respond to each one as if it’s a one-off, as if this is the last time this will happen. We have to do things differently. This must be the last such moment of failure, with the lessons leading to improvement not just locally but nationally.”
CQC programme of inspections must be strong and identify all failings
In recent years there has been investigations into maternity services at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust and now East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust, each of which have found catastrophic failings on maternity wards. The question now is how many more are to follow.
As Dr Kirkup says, the time for repeated reviews, investigations and recommendations has to stop. There needs to be more accountability, at the highest levels, and action taken to deliver immediate change on our maternity wards, to prevent the continued loss of precious life.
Making a Birth Injury Claim
Apart from the legal process, there are no other means for families to obtain compensation when serious injuries are caused due to negligent medical care.
At Hudgell Solicitors, our team of solicitors has extensive experience of handling birth injury claims and our clients often praise us for the sympathetic and understanding approach we take, alongside a determination to ensure we hold people to account and get the answers people need.
If you, your partner or your child has been affected adversely in any way during pregnancy, labour, childbirth or in the immediate aftercare period, whether that was under NHS or private care, our birth injury solicitors and lawyers are here to listen to your experience and provide you with support.
The first step is to get in touch. You can begin by contacting us via our claim form and selecting Birth Injury as the type of claim. You can also call us for a confidential discussion of your current situation or arrange a meeting to suit you via our online form.
From there, your birth injury lawyer will discuss your circumstances and recommend potential ways of funding your claim from the onset, including our ‘no win, no fee’ arrangement which enables people to pursue legal action without paying any money upfront.
