A damning report into the deaths of newborn babies at an NHS Trust is due to be published today.
The report has been chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup who also led the investigation in 2015 into deaths of mothers and babies at the Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.
The investigation into maternity services at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust has examined more than 200 cases of poor care dating back to 2009.
It is expected to find that babies died unnecessarily and the Trust failed to learn from failures in care over many years.
The report was commissioned in 2020 following growing concerns about the quality of care at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in Margate and the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.
It followed the death of baby Harry Richford who died a week after he was born in November 2017. He suffered brain damage after mistakes were made during his mother’s labour and delivery and there were delays in resuscitating him.
His family referred his death to a coroner and an inquest ruled that his death was “wholly avoidable”.