Concerns raised over East Kent Hospitals maternity care seven years ago

East Kent Hospitals have been accused of covering up the deaths of newborns and referring only a handful of infant fatalities to coroners, even though many more were unexplained and sudden.

The trust is currently the subject of a major independent inquiry following concerns that at least 15 newborns may have needlessly died since 2011.

In a further development, board documents have revealed that both the local health authority, Canterbury and Coastal Clinical Commissioning Group and the regional branch of NHS England, were concerned about the high number of serious mistakes in the maternity departments as early as 2013.

A ’quality report’ written by the CCG in September of that year highlights that its own staff and a panel headed up by regional NHS England managers had ‘both expressed concerns in relation to the number of serious incidents’.

Two years later, another local health authority, Thanet CCG and NHS England, were so concerned about the trust’s maternity services they asked the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to undertake a review.

The review highlighted how staff were failing to follow guidance or flag up potentially dangerous mistakes and consultants were refusing to come in at nights and weekends. The document was filed away, not made public, nor passed on to the Care Quality Commission.

A spokesperson for the trust said “The findings and recommendations from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) report were incorporated into the Trust’s improvement plan following receipt in February 2016.

“The Trust informed the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that a review of maternity services had been commissioned in 2015. Information about RCOG’s findings and the Trust’s progress were shared with commissioners, and with the CQC ahead of their 2016 inspection.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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