Hospital hit by baby death scandal did not have enough staff to keep patients safe, inspectors find

A hospital at the centre of a baby death scandal did not have enough maternity staff to keep mothers and babies safe, inspectors have found.

The Care Quality Commission found staff numbers were so low at East Kent Hospitals Trust that midwives were forced to work 20 hour days with little time for a break.

It found that the shortages meant women were transferred to other hospitals during labour, with not enough staff with the right qualifications or training to keep women safe from ‘avoidable harm’.

Two reports were compiled following unannounced inspections in July of maternity units and children and young people’s services at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate and William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, and the community midwifery services at Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury and Buckland Hospital in Dover.

Since 2011, 15 babies have died in the care of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust

Among the failings, inspectors found that staff often had to care for two women at once, and the telephone service for advice during the pandemic had received so many calls that non-clinical staff with limited experience were answering and assessing women who were phoning in.

They also found that community midwifery teams did not visit all new mothers and their babies at home, instead carrying out telephone assessments.

Concerns were initially raised about maternity services at the trust after a coroner ruled the death of week-old Harry Richford at Margate’s Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) to be ‘wholly avoidable’.

Harry Richford, pictured with his parents Sarah and Tom, died at just seven days old while in the care of East Kent Hospitals NHS trust

Since then an independent review was commissioned by the government after more families came forward about their experiences.

Inspectors did however praise the trust for the improvements it had already put in place, raising its rating from ‘inadequate’ to ‘requires improvement’.

Amanda Williams, the CQC’s head of hospital inspection, told the BBC: ‘When we inspected the maternity services, we were concerned that there were not enough midwifery staff and maternity support workers to keep women and babies safe.

‘We were also concerned that some staff were feeling exhausted, stressed and anxious, because mistakes can easily be made when people’s judgement is impaired by fatigue.’

Harry (pictured with his parents in hospital) died after an emergency C-section

Ms Williams said: ‘Staff did not always take the time to report all incidents around staffing and capacity issues. Staff felt that continually reporting short staffing had not improved the situation.’

The trust has reiterated its commitment to providing a high quality of care to patients.

Sarah Shingler, chief nursing officer at the trust told the BBC she was glad the CQC had pointed out areas of improvement for the trust after it had to deal with staff shortgaes caused by the pandemic.

Shingler added: ‘We continue to work hard to support our midwives’ wellbeing and help them provide a safe, high quality service for women and babies.

‘This includes a £1.6m investment to fund an additional 38 additional midwives with 26 already in post’.