Poor quality care in hospitals in the south east of England has led to the death of 45 babies in the past ten years, a report released this Wednesday concluded, in a new case pointing to problems in UK maternity hospitals.
“Deaths, injuries and other failures could have turned out differently if care had been provided to nationally accepted standards,” report author Bill Kirkup said at a news conference.
The report’s authors analyzed 202 cases of babies born between 2009 and 2020 at two large maternity hospitals in Kent, South East England, and concluded that 45 deaths could have been avoided out of a total of 65 deaths, the report concluded.
Kirkup said he had heard “scary” stories from families and described the findings of his investigation as “shocking.”
There were “flaws in professionalism, compassion and kindness”, he criticized, lamenting that “the women were not heard”.
“At least eight times in a ten-year period, hospital staff received an unavoidable sign that there were serious problems,” he continued.
“They could have solved things. The first time was in 2010. But they didn’t. In both cases, they found a way to deny that there were problems,” he condemned.
A report published in March on maternity hospitals in the west of England had already prompted the government to apologize when it found that more than 200 babies had died over 20 years as a result of a persistent refusal of cesarean sections and a lack of proper care.
Donna Ockenden, who led that investigation, was ordered in May to conduct another investigation in the Notthingham area of central England, following complaints from several families.
In 2015, another report by Bill Kirkup on maternity wards in the north of England concluded that a series of failures led to the deaths of 11 babies and one mother, again preventable deaths.
Source: DN
