At least 45 baby deaths could have been avoided at two Kent hospitals, a report into maternity services at an NHS trust has found.
Dr Bill Kirkup, chair of the independent inquiry into maternity at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said his panel had heard “harrowing” accounts from families receiving “suboptimal” care.
He said mothers had been ignored by staff and shut out from their own care.
“An overriding theme, raised us with time and time again, is the failure of the trust’s staff to take notice of women when they raised concerns, when they questioned their care, and when they challenged the decisions that were made about their care,” the report said.
The investigation into the care provided to women and babies examined more than 200 cases of poor care dating back to 2009.
It was commissioned in 2020 following growing concerns over the quality of care at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in Margate and the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.
The report found that had care been given to nationally recognised standards, the outcome could have been different in 45 of the 65 baby deaths and different in 97 of the 202 cases assessed.
