East Kent: A decade of failure in maternity care

After wellness inspectors considered closing a maternity portion implicit information fears, the BBC's Michael Buchanan looks astatine a near-decade of mediocre attraction astatine East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust.

"I've been telling you for months. The spot is getting worse."

The connection successful February, which I received from a subordinate of the maternity team, was stark but unsurprising. In a bid of texts implicit the erstwhile fewer months, the idiosyncratic had been getting progressively acrophobic astir what was happening astatine the East Kent trust.

The enactment is "totally ineffective" work 1 message. "How agelong bash we person to support proceeding this communicative - we judge atrocious things happened, we person learned and are putting it right. Nothing changes."

Friday's report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is unluckily conscionable the latest marker successful a near-decade of nonaccomplishment to amended maternity attraction astatine the trust. The revelation that inspectors considered closing the portion astatine the William Harvey Hospital successful Ashford comes 9 years aft the trust's caput of midwifery made a akin proposal for the aforesaid reasons - that it was a information to women and babies. The nonaccomplishment to enactment decisively past allowed galore mediocre practices to continue.

An autarkic reappraisal published past October recovered that betwixt 2009 and 2020, at slightest 45 babies whitethorn person survived with amended care, portion 12 different babies and 23 mothers wouldn't person suffered harm if they'd received bully maternity care.

Put simply, the spot has repeatedly failed to supply bully attraction - and past failed to enactment erstwhile presented with grounds of mediocre care.

Consider the bonzer deaths of 2 caller mothers from herpes astatine 2 of the trust's hospitals, conscionable six weeks isolated successful 2018. The spot told the families determination was nary transportation betwixt the deaths. There were. A BBC probe 3 years aboriginal recovered they'd been operated connected by the aforesaid surgeon, and that the spot had failed to trial him for herpes contempt being told to bash so.

When those disclosures led to an inquest being ordered, the spot delayed its commencement for weeks by making last-minute ineligible arguments astir wanting the coroner to enactment reporting restrictions connected naming the surgeon, arguments it could person made months earlier, arsenic it had been repeatedly discussed astatine erstwhile hearings.

When the inquest took evidence, a advisor microbiologist astatine the trust, Dr Sam Moses, was reprimanded for allegedly coaching a workfellow successful however to respond to answers portion different clinician was sitting successful the witnesser box.

Dr Moses besides admitted that helium hadn't told 1 household astir the connections betwixt the deaths, contempt being successful a gathering successful which the parent of 1 of the women who had died asked explicitly astir a link. He told the tribunal that "my relation was to assistance the trust. I didn't cognize whose work it was to tell" astir the connection.

At the bosom of the trust's problems, it seems, is simply a dysfunctional civilization that stretches backmost astir a decade. In 2015, a reappraisal of its maternity services by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recovered aggregate problems, including consultants failing to transportation retired ward rounds, measure women oregon be out-of-hours calls. The study was dismissed arsenic "a load of rubbish" by the trust. A Maternity Improvement Plan, overseen by NHS England, was devised. However, by the extremity of 2019 less than a 4th of its enactment points had been completed.

Improving attraction is virtually intolerable if colleagues don't get along. An Employment Tribunal decision, published successful February, concluded that a "toxic and hard moving environment" existed astatine William Harvey Hospital's maternity portion wherever radical were "shouted and sworn astatine implicit differences of nonrecreational opinion".

Olukemi Akinmeji, a achromatic midwife, sued the spot for contention favoritism and victimisation aft colleagues "joked" that they should "check their bags" connected her past time astatine the hospital. Ms Akinmeji, who worked astatine the William Harvey betwixt 2018 and 2020, won her case.

The tribunal judgement described proceeding grounds of a breached moving situation and a foul-mouthed registrar that 1 erstwhile workfellow described arsenic "totally unprofessional". Since Ms Akinmeji near the trust, that doc has been promoted to consultant, aft seemingly being told to chopped retired the swearing.

Three erstwhile unit person told the BBC determination is simply a clique of elder midwives astatine the William Harvey, nicknamed by immoderate arsenic "the untouchables". They are described arsenic "watching each other's backs", swearing, prone to talking disparagingly astir some patients and colleagues. They've been moving determination for galore years and are resistant to caller moving methods, and often, outsiders.

"It is the worst spot I've ever worked for," says one, "there is truthful overmuch unprofessional behaviour". Another erstwhile unit subordinate says,"midwives often near the extremity of their shifts successful tears, oregon broke down during a shift. People felt they couldn't talk up - adjacent the managers had their favourites."

In that context, it's small wonderment that the CQC recovered debased morale and debased levels of unit satisfaction, peculiarly among maternity unit astatine the William Harvey. Last year's unit survey, precocious published, recovered that connected each 9 measures rated - including "we are harmless and healthy" and "we are ever learning" - the scores from each maternity unit were importantly little than elsewhere successful the trust. Bear successful caput that the trust's wide scores included immoderate of the lowest scores of immoderate spot successful England.

It's not arsenic if East Kent has been near unsocial to benignant its problems out. NHS England has been each implicit the spot for years, overseeing betterment plans and sending, arsenic it announced successful 2020, "an adept squad into the spot to guarantee that improvements are made immediately". Asked wherefore their effort hadn't improved maternity care, NHS England couldn't supply an reply but said they had helped them enlistee much nurses and midwives.

In a connection to the BBC, the East Kent spot said it accepted it "was not consistently providing the standards of maternity attraction women and families should expect." But it says that successful the past fewer years, it has "worked hard to amended services," including investing "to summation the fig of midwifes and doctors" and to amended unit training.

On the last time of grounds successful the inquest into the 2 deaths from herpes, successful a antithetic country successful the aforesaid building, a pre-inquest reappraisal was taking spot into the decease of a 14-day-old lad successful September 2022 astatine the William Harvey Hospital. Evidence heard astatine that proceeding suggests that with amended care, his decease whitethorn person been avoided. The afloat inquest aboriginal this twelvemonth volition travel to a last conclusion.

The baby's death, the CQC study and its actions astatine the herpes inquest amusement that East Kent's occupation are deep-rooted and ongoing, and that aggregate changes of assorted directors implicit galore years person led to small discernible improvement.