A family will get ‘nothing’ from East Kent Hospitals after their baby’s death

A mother whose baby died after poor care in a maternity ward in Kent has been told she will receive no compensation.

Tanya Linehan’s son Ashton was stillborn at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, in 2012.

Family history was a key part Investigation into the Kirkup case to the failures at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT), which found that the care the family received “did not meet the required standards”.

After being invited by hospital management to discuss compensation issues earlier this year, they were told they would “get nothing.” Ms Linehan claims the foundation “denies the impact their neglect has had on me and my family”.

An investigation into maternity care at East Kent Hospital was led by Dr Bill Kirkup and reported in October 2022.

It’s over 45 children may have survivedhowever, in the case of the 12 people who suffered brain damage, the result may have been different.

It also found that the 23 women who died or were injured could have had better outcomes if they had been provided with care that met “nationally recognized” standards.

Since the publication of Kirkup’s report, the Linehan family has been working with EKHUFT to try to improve maternity care for other families.

In May 2024, Ms Linehan was invited by senior staff at the trust to discuss pay.

Over the next five months, the family and senior trust staff held a series of meetings to discuss the details of the remuneration package.

But at the final meeting on Thursday, the trust’s chief executive, Tracey Fletcher, told the family “you won’t get anything”.

The family said no reasons were given for this decision.

Ms Linehan said: “I felt like we came back with the same feeling that the trust didn’t care.

“For them to say after five months that they had made the decision not to pay me any payments was really devastating.”

Her father, Phil Linehan, said the Kirkup report was good but had “no confidence at all” in the hospital trust’s ability to implement its findings.

In a statement, East Kent Hospitals Trust said: “We are sincerely sorry for the loss of little Ashton and for the devastating and lasting impact on his family of the trust’s failure to provide the family with the safe care they should have received, as highlighted in the reading of the report Signals (Kirkup).

“We are committed to working with and listening to all families to continually improve maternity care.

“There is an established process for claiming compensation within the NHS and, after careful consideration, the trust has concluded that it is unfortunately unable to make payments outside this process.”