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.
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.”
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.”
“Immediate action” is being taken after blueprints of jail layouts were shared online.
The maps detailing the layouts of prisons in England and Wales were leaked on the dark web over the past fortnight, according to The Times.
The detailed information is said to include the locations of cameras and sensors, prompting fears they could be used to smuggle drugs or weapons into prisons or help inmates plan escapes.
Security officials are now working to identify the source of the leak and who might benefit from the details.
The Ministry of Justice did not disclose which prisons were involved in the breach.
A government spokesperson said in a statement: “We are not going to comment on the specific detail of security matters of this kind, but we are aware of a breach of data to the prison estate and, like with all potential breaches, have taken immediate action to ensure prisons remain secure.”
The leak comes amid a chronic prison overcrowding crisis, which has led to early release schemes and the re-categorising of the security risks of some offenders to ease capacity pressures.
The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.
Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.
There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.
A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.
They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.
“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.
“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”
The defence review will also be published in the spring.
While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.
They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after one man died and another was critically injured in a shooting in Birmingham.
Police were called to Rotton Park Road in Edgbaston, just before 11pm on Friday, to reports that two people had been shot.
One man, in his 20s, was found in a car but was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another man, in his 30s, was found injured at a bus stop, and was taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition, West Midlands Police added.
Firearms officers arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of murder just before 12.30am. He remains in custody.
Officers remain on the scene, with road closures in place. The force said reassurance patrols will also be taking place.
Detective Inspector Nick Barnes said: “This is a tragic incident, and we have worked through the night to understand exactly what happened.
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“We’ve already made good progress and arrested a suspect, but I still need to hear from anyone who was in the area that we’ve not already spoken to.
“This happened near the busy junction with City Road and it may be that you’ve got dashcam footage or mobile phone footage from the area just before 11pm.
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“We really need to hear from you so that we can build as clear a picture as possible of what happened.”
Officers are urging anyone with information to get in contact, with anonymous tips also taken via Crimestoppers.