Latest news with #Ex-Conservative
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'Government must speed up maternity care changes'
Ex-Conservative MP Theo Clarke has criticised the government for its lack of progress in improving maternity care in England and Wales. Ms Clarke has campaigned on the issue since making an emotional speech in the House of Commons in 2023 about her own maternity experience and also chaired an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) that made recommendations. The former MP for Stafford suffered severe blood loss and needed emergency surgery following a 40-hour labour to deliver her daughter, at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2022. She has now written a book, detailing her own harrowing experience, in a bid to help other women. Ms Clarke launched the memoir "Breaking The Taboo - Why We Need to Talk About Birth Trauma" in London on Tuesday evening. She said: "[The government] appear to have been under the misapprehension that I would disappear when I lost my seat - that is not going to happen". Speaking on the book's publication day, Ms Clarke told the BBC she never expected to be writing a memoir about being a new MP and having a baby during her time in office. "I hope by me sharing my story of my traumatic birth, it allows other mothers to feel seen and heard and listened to and that was very much the point of me writing it," she added. Ms Clarke also called on the government to bring in the cross-party recommendations of the birth trauma inquiry, which called for an overhaul of the UK's maternity and postnatal care. "The government has been in power now for 10 months and we've had no major announcements on maternity," she said. The Birth Trauma Inquiry, published in May 2024, included evidence from more than 1,300 women who had experienced traumatic births. Ms Clarke added there was still "so much to do" to improve maternity care for women. "There seems to be a real shame and a stigma about issues in women's health and we don't talk about them enough and certainly not in Parliament - so I hope by me very publicly sharing my story has helped make that difference," she said. "We've got to improve and standardise maternity care across the UK and that's the point of my campaign and that's why I've written a book about it." Ms Clarke was joined at the launch by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, who conducted the independent review into the baby deaths scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) and is currently chairing an inquiry into maternity care in Nottinghamshire. Ms Ockenden, who wrote the foreword for the book, said: "Three years ago the then Secretary of State Sajid Javid agreed to implement my recommendations, but in the intervening years not enough has happened". Earlier this month, it was reported that of the £100m allocated to improve maternity care in the aftermath of the SaTH inquiry, only £2m is ring-fenced this year to be spent on maternity services, In response however, the Department of Health (DoH) said progress was being made. "[This is] across a number of the recommendations from the APPG on Birth Trauma, including achieving 5.8% increase in the number of midwives," it said in a statement. It added that this week it had announced a rollout of a national NHS training programme to reduce the number of brain injuries during childbirth. After she lost her seat in 2024 General Election, Ms Clarke launched a podcast on the topic of birth trauma and interviewed campaigners and other women who had also experienced traumatic births. A number of women from across the country also feature in her book, including Molly Hunter, a mum of three, who lives in Staffordshire. Ms Hunter has endured a number of missed miscarriages - a pregnancy that has failed, but the body hasn't started the process of miscarriage - and said she wanted to share her story to try and make a difference. "My contribution to albeit small, shares a different angle because a lot of the book is focussing on birth trauma and for my second, third, fourth and fifth pregnancies, I had the miscarriages and never got to the stage where I was able to bring my baby home," she said. "Theo is breaking the taboo, talking about the issues that so many women suffer from and I think she has done such an important job. "I think going through a miscarriage is a very very lonely process." Ms Hunter hoped the book would "highlight the postcode lottery" that determined the care that women received. A survey by Mumsnet in April found that the vast majority of mothers had experienced physical or psychological birth trauma, of which 53% said they were less likely to have more children because of their experience of maternity care. The Tory government agreed to implement the recommendations of Theo's Birth Trauma APPG report last year, however nine days later the general election was called. "In the turmoil that followed, the government let down women, three years on I'm still working, the government must listen," said Ms Ockenden. "We are all born and we are all affected by this." The DoH accepts there is more to be done. "Through our Plan for Change, we are transforming the NHS, training thousands more midwives and have set an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap," it said. Ms Clarke said: "The campaign is not over and I am very unhappy that they have not adopted all of our recommendations". Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. MP breaks down recalling 'terrifying' birth trauma
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Yahoo
New report by panel of experts claims killer nurse Lucy Letby is innocent
MANCHESTER, England — The trial of Lucy Letby made headlines around the world due to the sheer horror and scale of the crimes for which she was convicted, but some believe the neonatal nurse is innocent and the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in North West England during a year-long killing spree between June 2015 and June 2016. She was portrayed by the prosecution as a "constant malevolent presence" on the hospital's neonatal unit and a "calculating and devious" nurse who liked "playing God." 'Cold-blooded' Nurse Lucy Letby Found Guilty Of Murdering 7 Babies At Hospital Neonatal Unit In an apparent handwritten confession note found by police, she said she had killed babies "on purpose." She also wrote, "I am a horrible evil person" and "I AM EVIL I DID THIS." Read On The Fox News App Letby, considered to be the United Kingdom's worst serial child killer, was sentenced to 15 life prison terms and has lost two bids to appeal her convictions. But there has been a growing clamor among leading medical professionals, legal experts and commentators that she is innocent. Ex-Conservative cabinet minister Sir David Davis has also spoken out and called for a new trial, telling fellow members of parliament (MPs) there was "no hard evidence" against her. This week, a fresh report presented by a panel of 14 international experts has claimed there is "no medical evidence" she murdered or harmed any of the babies in her care. During her first ten-month trial — Letby later faced a second trial — she was accused of murdering four of the seven babies by injecting air into their bloodstreams and attempting to kill others by the same method. The prosecution claimed other babies were harmed by insulin poisoning, being force-fed milk or by trauma to the liver. But the experts' report rules out any criminality and points to babies deteriorating due to natural causes or "bad medical care." Therefore, it's claimed Letby is the victim of "one of the major injustices of modern times." Letby's new lawyer, Mark McDonald, told The Guardian newspaper the report demolished the case against her, and there was "overwhelming evidence this conviction is unsafe." Lucy Letby Trial: Father Testifies Baby Girl Was Left Severely Disabled After Nurse Tried To Kill Her The report's findings have been sent to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, which is now formally examining the case. The CCRC will also be tasked with reexamining the contentious medical evidence used to convict Letby. In particular, questions have been raised about the prosecution's main medical expert, Dr. Dewi Evans, who claimed babies died from having air injected into their bloodstreams, causing air embolism, a fatal condition. During Letby's trial, he pointed to skin discoloration in several victims as an indicator of air embolism, citing a 1989 academic paper. Nurse Lucy Letby Wrote Sympathy Card To Parents Of Baby Girl She's Accused Of Murdering But retired Canadian neonatologist Shoo Lee, a co-author of the paper and chair of the panel, believes the research was misinterpreted by the prosecution, and Dr. Evans' findings have "no basis in evidence." The panel has also cast doubt on supposed insulin poisonings after Letby's original defense team did not dispute them. It's claimed that babies were not properly cared for, and there were failures to carry out "basic medical procedures, delays in their treatment and the misdiagnosis of diseases." Dr. Lee also claimed the hospital was overworked and inadequately staffed, saying, "If this had happened at a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down." It will take many months for the CCRC to review the case, and there's no guarantee it will be referred back to the Court of Appeal. So, Letby will remain in prison for the foreseeable future, with any bail application likely to be resisted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Meanwhile, a public inquiry examining events at the hospital is due to conclude next month while prosecutors are considering bringing further charges against Letby in other baby deaths at a second hospital, Liverpool Women's Hospital. A CCRC spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We have received a preliminary application in relation to Ms. Letby's case, and work has begun to assess the application. "At this stage, it is not possible to determine how long it will take to review this application. A significant volume of complicated evidence was presented to the court in Ms Letby's trials. "We anticipate further submissions being made to us." A CPS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "Two juries and three appeal court judges have reviewed a multitude of different strands of evidence against Lucy Letby. She has been convicted on 15 separate counts following two separate jury trials. "In May 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed Letby's leave to appeal on all grounds, rejecting her argument that expert prosecution evidence was flawed."Original article source: New report by panel of experts claims killer nurse Lucy Letby is innocent
Fox News
08-02-2025
- Health
- Fox News
New report by panel of experts claims killer nurse Lucy Letby is innocent
MANCHESTER, England — The trial of Lucy Letby made headlines around the world due to the sheer horror and scale of the crimes for which she was convicted, but some believe the neonatal nurse is innocent and the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in North West England during a year-long killing spree between June 2015 and June 2016. She was portrayed by the prosecution as a "constant malevolent presence" on the hospital's neonatal unit and a "calculating and devious" nurse who liked "playing God." In an apparent handwritten confession note found by police, she said she had killed babies "on purpose." She also wrote, "I am a horrible evil person" and "I AM EVIL I DID THIS." Letby, considered to be the United Kingdom's worst serial child killer, was sentenced to 15 life prison terms and has lost two bids to appeal her convictions. But there has been a growing clamor among leading medical professionals, legal experts and commentators that she is innocent. Ex-Conservative cabinet minister Sir David Davis has also spoken out and called for a new trial, telling fellow members of parliament (MPs) there was "no hard evidence" against her. This week, a fresh report presented by a panel of 14 international experts has claimed there is "no medical evidence" she murdered or harmed any of the babies in her care. During her first ten-month trial — Letby later faced a second trial — she was accused of murdering four of the seven babies by injecting air into their bloodstreams and attempting to kill others by the same method. The prosecution claimed other babies were harmed by insulin poisoning, being force-fed milk or by trauma to the liver. But the experts' report rules out any criminality and points to babies deteriorating due to natural causes or "bad medical care." Therefore, it's claimed Letby is the victim of "one of the major injustices of modern times." Letby's new lawyer, Mark McDonald, told The Guardian newspaper the report demolished the case against her, and there was "overwhelming evidence this conviction is unsafe." The report's findings have been sent to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, which is now formally examining the case. The CCRC will also be tasked with reexamining the contentious medical evidence used to convict Letby. In particular, questions have been raised about the prosecution's main medical expert, Dr. Dewi Evans, who claimed babies died from having air injected into their bloodstreams, causing air embolism, a fatal condition. During Letby's trial, he pointed to skin discoloration in several victims as an indicator of air embolism, citing a 1989 academic paper. But retired Canadian neonatologist Shoo Lee, a co-author of the paper and chair of the panel, believes the research was misinterpreted by the prosecution, and Dr. Evans' findings have "no basis in evidence." The panel has also cast doubt on supposed insulin poisonings after Letby's original defense team did not dispute them. It's claimed that babies were not properly cared for, and there were failures to carry out "basic medical procedures, delays in their treatment and the misdiagnosis of diseases." Dr. Lee also claimed the hospital was overworked and inadequately staffed, saying, "If this had happened at a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down." It will take many months for the CCRC to review the case, and there's no guarantee it will be referred back to the Court of Appeal. So, Letby will remain in prison for the foreseeable future, with any bail application likely to be resisted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Meanwhile, a public inquiry examining events at the hospital is due to conclude next month while prosecutors are considering bringing further charges against Letby in other baby deaths at a second hospital, Liverpool Women's Hospital. A CCRC spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We have received a preliminary application in relation to Ms. Letby's case, and work has begun to assess the application. "At this stage, it is not possible to determine how long it will take to review this application. A significant volume of complicated evidence was presented to the court in Ms Letby's trials. "We anticipate further submissions being made to us." A CPS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "Two juries and three appeal court judges have reviewed a multitude of different strands of evidence against Lucy Letby. She has been convicted on 15 separate counts following two separate jury trials. "In May 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed Letby's leave to appeal on all grounds, rejecting her argument that expert prosecution evidence was flawed."
