The Independent and National Maternity & Neonatal Investigation chaired by Baroness Amos is inviting families who have received maternity and/or neonatal care at East Kent Hospitals to share their experiences at a panel event next Tuesday (November 11).
East Kent Hospitals, which runs sites including the QEQM in Margate, is one of 14 trusts that is in a rapid, national investigation of maternity and newborn baby care across England.
It is one of three trusts chosen where previous investigations into the services have taken place and learnings from these will be incorporated in the new investigation.
The investigation will deliver one clear set of national recommendations to achieve consistently high-quality, safe maternity and neonatal care.
Baroness Amos chairs the investigation which focuses on understanding the experiences of affected women and families, identifying lessons learned and driving the improvements needed to ensure high quality and safe maternity and neonatal care across England.
The investigation was announced in June by Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting who said the government had inherited systemic problems in maternity and neonatal care dating back over 15 years.
It came alongside a package of immediate actions to improve care, including greater intervention by the Secretary of State and NHS Chief Executive to hold failing trusts to account.
Take part
Families affected by maternity/neonatal issues at Ashford or Margate hospitals can take part in the panels on Tuesday.
These are scheduled for:
Panel 1: 10am – 11.30am
Panel 2: 12pm – 13.30pm
If you wish to participate, go to: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx…
CQC
The maternity services at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, Margate were last rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The CQC inspected the service in December 2024 and found the Trust had made ‘significant improvements’ since its last inspection in 2023.
The inspections were carried out to follow up on urgent conditions CQC imposed upon the trust that required it to take action to ensure significant improvements were made to safety, leadership, culture, the environment and staffing levels.
Baby deaths
The improvements followed previous failings in care that were highlighted in 2022 in the publication of the independent Kirkup report which found 45 baby deaths at East Kent Hospitals could have been avoided.
Issues with maternity were brought into the spotlight following the death of baby Harry Richford at Margate’s QEQM Hospital in 2017 after a series of errors.
In 2021 East Kent Hospitals Trust was fined a total of £761,170 – inclusive of costs – for failing to discharge its duty to provide safe care and treatment, resulting in avoidable harm with the death of seven day old Harry Richford and sub standard care of his mum Sarah at QEQM Hospital in 2017.
Some 200 families came forward to the Kirkup review over the preventable deaths of their babies.
Compensation
Figures obtained by Medical Negligence Assist found that, since 2020, NHS trusts in Kent have had to pay out over £70m to patients who have lodged claims related to birth injuries.
NHS trusts have experienced record levels of legal claims made against them for maternity failings in recent years, after sub-standard care led babies and women dying or suffering life-altering conditions.
East Kent Hospitals Trust has paid £27.2m in compensation over the last five years.
A Tust spokesperson said: “We are truly sorry and recognise the immeasurable impact on families when mistakes are made.
“We are committed to learning when things go wrong and have made significant improvements to our maternity services.”
70 million in compo just due to deaths of babies …. Thats shocking.