East Kent NHS Trust: Baby death response disappointing, expert says

An independent review was chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup CBE

An expert who wrote a damning report into Kent's baby death scandal has branded the government's initial response as "disappointing".

At least 45 babies might have survived with better care at East Kent NHS, Dr Bill Kirkup's review found last year.

Women's health minister Maria Caulfield said the government is working with the trust to improve patient safety.

But Dr Kirkup told the BBC the government had not recognised the "full depth and difficulty" of the problems.

He said: "I'm very disappointed that it's taken this long and that all we have is an initial response, and that it does not go nearly far enough in my view to address the depth and complexity of the issues that we've identified."

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) described the statement as "lacklustre" and baby loss charities Sands and Tommy's said "much greater detail" was needed.

Ms Caulfield said it was "vital" lessons were learned and that the government was keen to continue working with Dr Kirkup.

'Harrowing findings'

Dr Kirkup's report identified four action areas including monitoring performance, caring for patients with kindness and compassion, improving teamwork, and placing a duty on public bodies not to "deny, deflect and conceal information".

His review found families were not listened to, encountered a lack of kindness and compassion, were conscious of unprofessional conduct and poor working relationships, felt excluded during a serious event, and ignored, marginalised or disparaged afterwards, and were forced to live with incomplete or inaccurate narratives.

The independent review in October found that at least 45 babies might have survived

In her written ministerial statement, Ms Caulfield said work was under way to establish a task force to drive maternity outcome measures.

She said educators would be commissioned to report on embedding compassionate care into practice with nationally-agreed standards of behaviour, further work would be commissioned on teamwork, and the government would consider duties on public bodies to share information.

She said the East Kent NHS Trust accepted Dr Kirkup's findings and the government continued to work with NHS England and the Care Quality Commission regarding safety concerns.

Tracey Fletcher, the trust's chief executive, said: "We have fully accepted all of the findings of Dr Kirkup's report and remain committed to making the necessary improvements."

Dr Kirkup declined to comment on the latest position at the trust, where the board last month was told of continued safety failures.

He said: "We said... there needed to be a proper response to this, such was the harrowing nature of what was disclosed, such was the reaction of all the families there.

"I did say then I'm not going to go away until I believe that people are taking sufficient notice of this and at the moment all I can say is I'm not minded to go away just yet."

Gill Walton, RCM chief executive, said: "This lacklustre response does little to address the report's calls for greater investment in maternity services or the recommendations around training and support for staff."

Dr Kirkup said he had met health ministers but had not had any follow-up, adding: "The initial response today came out of the blue. As far as I was concerned, I think that's disappointing. I hope that we can all do better in the future."

Ms Caulfield said: "Our initial response sets out the recommendations that we are accepting, and that we continue to support East Kent Hospital Trust as it works to improve patient safety and the provision of personalised and compassionate maternity care

"It's vital we learn lessons to ensure maternity care everywhere meets the national standard. We are keen to continue working with Dr Kirkup as we greatly value his expertise in this field.

"I'm grateful for all the families who came forward to share their experiences and we will update on our progress later in the spring."

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].