East Kent NHS Trust Admits 'Failing Families' Over Stillbirths
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NHS trust admits 'failing families' over stillbirths
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: The stillbirths all occurred at the East Kent NHS trust between June 2025 and March 2026.
By Michael Buchanan, Social affairs correspondent
Mark Norman, South East health correspondent
and Tanya Gupta, South East
Published 30 September 2026, 13:16 BST
Updated 3 hours ago
An NHS trust has apologised after an independent review found that eight babies might have survived with better maternity care, admitting it has "failed families".
The stillbirths all occurred at the East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust's hospitals between June 2025 and March 2026.
An independent review ordered by the trust found systemic issues lay at the heart of the failures. These included:
- Failures to manage high risk pregnancies
- Inappropriate triage
- Missing foetal growth concerns
- Poor use of interpreter services.
Since the report, a further seven stillbirths have occurred, including three last month. A review into those deaths has now been ordered. All the stillbirths occurred after 34 weeks gestation.
Three years ago, the Kirkup report found 45 babies might have survived at the trust's hospitals if they had received better care.
The East Kent NHS trust runs the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) Hospital in Margate.
'Devastating outcomes'
Papers for a board meeting on Thursday contained a report by the acting CEO of the trust, Dr Des Holden, who apologised to the families involved:
"On behalf of the board, and personally, I am very sorry and apologise to the women and families, and their communities, where failings in our care are at the heart of these devastating outcomes."
The report identified four cases with care deficiencies that likely affected the outcome for the baby. In a further four cases, issues were found that may have contributed to the outcome.
The review noted "recurrent and systemic weaknesses" in pregnancy management, foetal surveillance, triage, escalation, and organisational learning.
Document also stated that since the review, there have been four term stillbirths between April 2026 and July 2026, and a further three in August 2026.
Helen Gittos, who lost her baby Harriett in 2014, previously told the BBC:
"It's gut-wrenching... talking to other families involved, our reactions are sort of a mixture of incredulity and rage. It's not acceptable that so little has changed in so long."
She added:
"We have to try to do things differently."