logo
Baby death East Kent NHS trust reaches 'turning point'

Baby death East Kent NHS trust reaches 'turning point'

BBC News15-05-2025
Two maternity units in Kent have shown signs of improvements three years after a damning independent review found up to 45 babies might have survived if they had received better care, a report has said.The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report rated maternity services at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate as good, two years after they were downgraded to inadequate.The CQC said "significant improvements" had been made at both units to safety, leadership, culture, the environment and staffing levels.Tracey Fletcher, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, said the report was "an important milestone in our continuing work to improve our services".
Kaye Wilson, chief midwife for the South East at NHS England, said: "This report marks a turning point for services at East Kent and is the result of the commitment, determination and sheer hard work of midwives, obstetricians and the whole maternity team."Only one maternity unit in south-east England received a better CQC rating, Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford, Surrey, which was outstanding.The changes to the classification of the two Kent units came after an unannounced inspection in December.Serena Coleman, CQC's deputy director of operations in Kent, said: "We found significant improvements and a better quality service for women, people using the service and their babies."This turnaround in ratings across both services demonstrates what can be achieved with strong and capable leaders who focus on an inclusive and positive culture."
The CQC report said concerns remained about the size of labour rooms, which were not always big enough to include essential equipment like infant resuscitation devices.Sarah Hayes, chief nursing and midwifery officer at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, said the improvements were "important for our families, staff and our communities".The trust's overall rating and the overall rating for both hospitals remain unchanged, and rated as requires improvement.It said it planned to start a rebuild of the maternity unit in Margate later this year.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Why the resident doctors are wrong to go on a five-day strike
Why the resident doctors are wrong to go on a five-day strike

The Independent

time37 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Why the resident doctors are wrong to go on a five-day strike

The imminent strikes by the BMA resident doctors pose a moment of sadness. It is sad for patients and sad for the NHS. We are in the economic equivalent of a Covid crisis in the NHS; if the proposed reforms aren't delivered, it will be an existential crisis for our health system. I do not say that at all lightly, but I do say it from decades of knowledge and experience. It is a relief that reforms are already starting to see things moving in the right direction, but this action will choke off that recovery and put the NHS in a perilous place. I was a GP for 29 years. It is a privilege to be a clinician and share people's lives at difficult moments. It is our professional duty to put the people we care for before ourselves. Last year's (and this year's) pay award amounts to a 28.9 per cent increase for resident doctors compared with three years ago. It is what many other people dream of, not to mention the almost unique index-linked NHS pensions. It cannot have been easy to persuade the Treasury to pay out in such resource-constrained times. Having pocketed that, the resident doctors now need to accept that there is no more money for pay – reform has to have priority. That said, there are valid issues to be sorted out in training, allocation to jobs, and working conditions. It isn't right that resident doctors can be randomly allocated to posts, disrupting lives, or find the catering arrangements totally inadequate when on call. However, the NHS 10-year plan contains within it a pledge to deal with such matters with speed. So, I just don't understand the call for a strike. It is disproportionate when there is such an open door. Without getting too Monty Python, as a junior doctor, I did one in two or one in three 'on calls', which meant working the days and also working through every other night (or third night) with time beyond 40 hours paid at a third of our normal rate. It was brutal, but our representatives worked to make things better – and from this, the current generation benefits. We wouldn't ever have considered taking action against our patients. And this action is against patients. The resident doctors may be worried about their futures, but so is every patient who now might not be treated. Polls suggest patients do not agree with the resident doctors. I hope the public supports the NHS and opposes the resident doctors this time. I hope resident doctors support the NHS – and not their leaders. The proposed action will further erode trust by people in the NHS. It is already at an all-time low, and the consent of the nation to use 40 per cent of departmental spend on a poorly performing healthcare system is unlikely to continue without improvement. This resident doctors' action almost guarantees the end of the NHS if they continue, playing into the hands of those who want to have a different healthcare system. This action is the industrial relations equivalent of the charge of the Light Brigade. The resident doctors should remember the spirit of the Hippocratic oath; first, do no harm.

NHS urge young people to get HPV jab to protect against cancer
NHS urge young people to get HPV jab to protect against cancer

BBC News

time38 minutes ago

  • BBC News

NHS urge young people to get HPV jab to protect against cancer

The NHS is urging hundreds of thousands of people yet to have the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to get protected against cervical and other practices will send invitations via letters, emails, texts and the NHS App to patients aged 16-25 whose records show they did not get it in June, government data found inequalities in vaccine uptake in different regions in 2023-2024, with the lowest rate seen in London for both female and male year 10 vaccine is offered each year to boys and girls aged 12 to 13 to help protect them against catching the infection which causes nearly all cervical cancers and is linked to mouth, throat, anus, penis and vagina cancers. 'Get protected' According to NHS England data, in the past three years more than 418,000 children left school unvaccinated for HPV – and there are believed to be many others aged 16-25 who were not vaccinated at bosses want to reach as many as possible, under plans to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 - set out in the recently published 10 Year Health NHS aims to increase uptake among girls to 90% by 2040, while also increasing the number of women getting cervical vaccine can also be given to those up to age 45 with immune-compromised conditions and to men who have sex with other England added that the latest HPV vaccine, introduced in England in 2021, was proven to be more effective – and in the long term is predicted to reduce cases of women's cancer by 16% and HPV-attributable deaths by 9%, compared with the previous in England have shown that the HPV vaccine stops 90% of cervical cancer Amanda Doyle, from NHS England, said: "Too many lives are lost to cervical cancer so the hard work of NHS staff across the country in vaccinating and screening as many people as possible will help us to meet our ambition of wiping out this disease."Encouraging progress has been made recently in increasing uptake but we know there is much more to do."Dr Sharif Ismail, from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said: "We know that uptake of the HPV vaccination in young people has fallen significantly since the pandemic, leaving many many thousands across the country at greater risk of HPV-related cancers. "We're calling on all parents to return their children's HPV vaccination consent forms promptly."For young adults up to age 25, who missed their school vaccinations, please speak to your GP about catch-up options. It's never too late to get protected."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store