Families Urged to Come Forward In Kent Maternity Scandal

Families who are worried about the maternity services they received at East Kent Hospitals NHS are being asked to come forward to be a part of an investigation into a string of baby deaths.

The Kent maternity scandal involves an array of deficiencies that contributed to about 15 baby deaths, the BBC reported.

Dr. Bill Kirkup is asking families to come forward, and many families already have decided to take part in the Kent maternity scandal investigation. Kirkup urges other families who have something to contribute to come forward. 

“We will deal with whatever it is that you tell us confidentially and sensitively,” Kirkup said, according to the BBC. 

Kirkup is joined by five maternity experts to assist with the independent review of baby deaths. 

The review into the Kent maternity scandal began in November 2017. A collection of hospital failures were discovered after Harry Richford died in the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) just seven days after being born, the BBC reported. 

A coroner determined the infant’s death had been avoidable, and it was ruled that the baby’s death was due to hospital neglect, according to the BBC.

Previously, in 2014, another baby born at the QEQM died days later. 

That baby’s mother, Helen Gittos, spoke to the BBC about the Kent maternity scandal.

“I think if they [families] have concerns about what happened to their babies then they should use this as an opportunity to talk to the Kirkup inquiry,” she said.

“This is not about blame. This is not about making things harder for NHS staff who we know are working so terribly hard.

“It is about trying to improve things for parents in future and time to make sure that mothers and fathers and babies in east Kent are well looked after and can feel that they’re going to go into service which is safe and that they can trust,” Gittos added.

East Kent Hospitals were investigated by Kent County Council’s health committee. The committee said there have been measures taken by the hospitals to better the maternity services and employ more staff members.

Not all maternity units are willing to admit baby deaths may have been caused by their negligence, though.

The chief inspector of England’s hospitals has said some hospitals become “too defensive” over baby deaths, the BBC reported. 

The Care Quality Commission’s Ted Baker said healthcare workers need to be more willing to learn from mistakes, but he also mentioned that the system should be blamed rather than individual healthcare workers, according to the BBC.

After reviewing failings that cause baby deaths, Kirkup added that some maternity units try to “actively conceal” errors.

Kirkup has reviewed other failures at Morecambe Bay NHS Trust and wrote a report on a flawed maternity unit at Furness General Hospital in Barrow after the deaths of three mothers and 16 babies. 

Kirkup’s report noted these “unnecessary deaths” were somewhat due to the health care workers’ “failure to recognise the severity” of the maternity unit’s operations, the BBC reported.

As for the Kent maternity scandal, Kirkup said: “The first step is to find out what happened in each and every case that we’re aware of so that we can see where things might have gone wrong.

Then we’ll look at what was the response to something going wrong: Was it investigated properly? Were lessons learned, and then what the trust was doing and what external bodies were doing, too?”

If you have a concern about the Kent maternity scandal, you can reach Kirkup and the team of experts by visiting their website.

What are your thoughts about the Kent maternity scandal? Share how you feel in the comments.

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