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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Denis Campbell Health policy editor

Maternity care is not on a journey of obvious improvement

NHS Bill Kirkup Donna Ockenden Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission and Commons health select committee warned last year that learning from maternity scandals was happening too slowly.
The Care Quality Commission and Commons health select committee warned last year that learning from maternity scandals was happening too slowly. Photograph: UK Stock Images Ltd/Alamy

Reports showing that babies and mothers died or were harmed as a result of failures by, and sometimes heartless cruel treatment in, NHS maternity units are becoming worryingly common.

Dr Bill Kirkup’s just-published 192-page exposé of an appalling catalogue of failings at East Kent NHS trust between 2009 and 2020 is the second in the last 12 months. As many as 45 babies and 23 mothers in East Kent died avoidably during that time because their care was substandard, his inquiry found.

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