NOW NHS FACES DEADLY COVID BACKLOG

Fears of ‘tsunami’ of cancer deaths as ops are cancelled for two years

SCOTLAND faces a ‘tsunami of cancer deaths’ because the NHS will continue to operate at severely reduced capacity for at least two years. The Scottish Government has confirmed surgery services will operate at 60 per cent of levels before the Covid pandemic for the next 24 months – ‘and perhaps longer’ if there are further surges in virus rates.

It has led to fears that around 10,000 cancer patients are likely to miss out on surgery over the next two years.

Cancer is Scotland’s biggest killer but the pandemic has already made an impact on

‘Incompetence or a conspiracy’

A MAJOR hospital trust was accused last night of covering up suspicious baby deaths.

It has repeatedly failed to report tragedies to coroners or investigate potential failings.

Grieving families believe senior staff tried to brush off deaths by claiming they were ‘expected’ or by implying mothers were to blame.

East Kent Hospitals University Trust is now at the centre of a major probe following the deaths of at least 15 babies in potentially avoidable circumstances since 2011.

Figures obtained under freedom of information laws show at least 124 infants have died after being born at the NHS trust over the past seven years. Yet only 24 of the deaths were reported to coroners even though many were sudden and unexplained.

Hospitals should inform the coroner of such cases and around 45 per cent of all deaths are referred on for an initial investigation. East Kent admits in another freedom of information response that only 11 of its 93 stillbirths and newborn deaths over the past two years led to a ‘serious incident’ investigation.

The major independent inquiry into the trust’s maternity services was ordered by ministers in February.

The extent of the failings came to light a month earlier during the inquest of baby Harry Richford, who died in November 2017 in what the coroner called ‘wholly avoidable’ circumstances.

He was delivered by an emergency caesarean section which was performed too late by an inexperienced locum doctor.

A second doctor delayed resuscitating Harry and he died from irreversible brain damage seven days later.

Other families came forward to report their own potentially avoidable tragedies. East Kent initially refused to refer Harry’s death to the coroner but his grandfather, Derek Richford, did so.

Mr Richford, who uncovered the hospital’s figures with freedom of information requests, said: ‘Since Harry died we have found that the trust have done everything in their power to avoid scrutiny.

I still can’t fully decide if this was a matter of gross incompetence or a conspiracy.’

Nick Fairweather, a medical negligence solicitor who is representing 12 families, said he feared there was a ‘concerted cover-up’.

He added: ‘This needs the most thorough investigation and scrutiny.’

The Mail has also spoken to other mothers whose baby deaths were not investigated.

Some said staff suggested they were to blame, by contracting infections which they passed to their babies or through refusing medical interventions.

A letter from the senior coroner for Mid Kent and Medway to legal teams representing families warns that ‘deaths of babies within the trust which should have been referred to the coroner at the time of the death had not been’.

The trust will come under further scrutiny this year with the inquest of Archie Batten, who died last September after his mother Rachel Higgs was turned away from a maternity unit.

The Care Quality Commission watchdog is due to announce whether it will bring a criminal prosecution for the failings leading up to baby Harry’s death.

An East Kent spokesman said: ‘We are treating the concerns raised about the safety of the service with the utmost seriousness and urgency.’