A damning report into the deaths of newborn babies at an NHS Trust is due to be published.
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 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 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”.
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The Trust subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of unsafe care and treatment for Harry and his mother Sarah. It was fined £733,000.
Image: Harry Richford’s death was described as ‘wholly avoidable’
In November 2019 Laura Cooke took her four week old baby Luchii to the QEQM with a mottled rash, erratic breathing and reduced feeding.
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He was sent home without treatment after a doctor diagnosed the lung infection bronchiolitis. In fact, Luchii had tuberculosis but doctors failed to realise before his death on 6 December.
Mrs Cooke said she felt ignored by medics as her concern for her son increased. “I just felt I wasn’t listened to. They kept making me feel like I was going insane, going crazy… no one was listening to me.”
Luchii’s father Vlado Gavrilescu recalls the last time he saw his son.
“The doctor said everything is alright, he’s going to be transferred to the London hospital and after 30 minutes they came and said he’s passed away.
“This basically destroyed me. My first child.”
Image: Vlado Gavrilescu with his son Luchii
The Care Quality Commission has repeatedly ranked the Trust’s maternity services as “requires improvement”. During unannounced inspections in July 2021 there were not enough midwifery staff and maternity support workers to keep women and babies safe.
In 2020, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), which investigates NHS harm, detailed how, despite repeated warnings from its investigators, improvements were not made to maternity care at the trust.
Michelle Meakin, a partner with Girlings Solicitors who has represented families in East Kent told Sky News: “There needs to be more investment and there needs to be a culture change.
“So many people come to me with the hope that this won’t happen to another family but sadly as we’ve seen from these reviews the same mistakes keep happening.”
Comedy writer Bill Dare, – who worked on shows including Spitting Image and Dead Ringers – has died after an accident overseas, his agent said.
Described as a “super producer” by his peers, Dare, 64, worked on eight series of hugely popular satire puppet show Spitting Image.
Airing on ITV during the 1980s and 1990s, the show delighted in lampooning public figures including politicians, celebrities and royalty, winning BAFTAs and Emmys. It was rebooted in 2020.
Dare also created Dead Ringers, a comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
He also produced The Now Show, a satirical take on the news which ran on Radio 4 from 1998 to 2024.
Dare worked on a wide range of comedy shows during his career, including the radio production of The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He had also written several novels.
In a statement released on Monday, his agent JFL Agency confirmed he died at the weekend.
A spokesperson said: “We are shocked and greatly saddened to have to announce the death of our brilliant client Bill Dare, who died at the weekend following an accident overseas.
“Our thoughts are with his wife Lucy, daughter Rebecca, and with all of Bill’s family and friends who will be devastated by his loss.
“Bill was a truly legendary producer and writer, and his comedy instincts were second to none.”
Image: Oasis depicted on Spitting Image in 1996. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Colleagues were quick to pay tribute and reflect on his talent.
Impressionist Jon Culshaw wrote on X: “It’s impossible to express the unreal sense of loss at the passing of the incredible Bill Dare. The wisest comedy alchemist and the dearest, dearest friend. Much love to Lucy and all Bill’s family and friends. We shall all miss him more than we can say.”
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David Baddiel posted on the social media platform: “Just heard that the original producer of The Mary Whitehouse Experience on radio, Bill Dare, has died. Bill was an amazing creative force. I owe him much. RIP.”
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Former EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman said she was “devastated” and that her “entire comedy career was down to Bill”.
She wrote: “When I was on the BBC Radio 4 rep company early on in career – I ran into Bill in the corridors – He asked if I was good at accents. I said yes.
“He cast me in a sketch show. I had to do about 15 different accents. We recorded in front of a live audience at Broadcasting House – afterwards Bill said ‘Why have I never met you – you’re going to have a big career’.
“He was incredibly loyal and supportive and really opened a path for me into the R4 comedy world and then TV having come out of the RSC and theatre it was all new. I will always be grateful. Fly high Bill.”
Comedian and writer Mark Steel wrote: “This is so grim. Bill was a compassionate hearty soul with the ability to be beautifully grumpy, a marvellously thoughtful comic mind.
“He’d argue but always listen and you’d always laugh, he made a million shows and wanted them all to matter and would have made a million more.”
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Have I Got News for You writer Pete Sinclair said: “I am utterly devastated by Bill’s death. I still can’t believe it. He was a comedy genius. A hugely talented writer as well as a brilliant producer. A close friend and co-writer. I cannot begin to say how much I’ll miss him.”
Julia McKenzie, comedy commissioner for Radio 4, said: “I am so terribly sorry to hear this tragic news and my thoughts are with Bill’s wife, family and friends.
“Bill has been a huge part of Radio 4 comedy for decades, as a writer and producer, and listeners will have heard his legendary name at the end of many of their favourite shows.
“Bill was a comedy obsessive, and very instinctive about making the funniest choices when it came to writing, directing and editing.
“He cared so much about his work that in the production booth during Dead Ringers you’d see him crouched over the script, utterly focused on the show.
“He was funny and very dry in person, amusingly cynical when he needed to be and always pushed to keep the comedy he made, and particularly satire, spiky.
“I’ve known and worked with him for 18 years and like many I can’t believe he has gone, he will leave a big hole in the comedy world and in our hearts.”
An ex-prison officer who boasted about performing a sex act on an inmate who “manipulated” her has been jailed.
Mother-of-one Katie Evans, 26, burst into tears in court as the judge described how she was “corrupted” by an “experienced criminal” not long after she started work at Doncaster Prison when she was just 21.
As well as starting an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Daniel Brownley, Evans had more than 140 phone calls with him, moved money around bank accounts for him, and supplied him with information the prison held on him, the court heard.
Brownley had been jailed in 2016 for attempted robbery, burglary and handling stolen goods, the court heard.
“It appears you indulged in some form of sexual activity in the prison. It has been described that on one occasion you had oral sex with him,” Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Evans at Sheffield Crown Court.
“It is truly a terrible situation for a judge to be passing sentence on a former prison officer who has been branded a corrupt prison officer.”
Judge Richardson told Evans “he corrupted you and not the reverse”, adding: “I’m entirely satisfied you were manipulated by an experienced criminal to assist him.”
He said Evans was “young and immature” at the time but added: “Your misconduct materially affected the good order and discipline of the prison.”
“You were inexperienced and immature but that is, however, no excuse for what you did.”
Judge Richardson said the sentence of 21 months should have been longer but, “purely as an act of mercy”, he reduced it to take into account the effect it will have on Evans’ relationship with her young daughter and the difficulties she will have in prison as a former officer.
Evans, of Hatfield, Doncaster, admitted misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.
Still crying, she waved at family members in the public gallery as she was led from the dock.