Dozens of babies and three mothers died at hospitals in England over four decades because of major staff failings, The New York Times said in a piece citing a report on Britain's National Health Service.
According to the piece by NYT reporter Ceylan Yeğinsu, the problems at U.K.'s Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust between 1979 and 2017 resulted in "dozens of stillbirths as well as the deaths of newborns and women who had just given birth."
Experts say this could become the biggest maternity scandal in the history of Britain's National Health Service.
"It identifies hundreds of cases of repeated failings and clinical errors by doctors, midwives and hospital bosses, as well as a lack of transparency and honesty," wrote Yeğinsu on the report.
The piece also said that an investigation ordered by the U.K. government in 2017 found more than 50 cases of injury.
"A senior official at the National Health Service called the findings a major and disturbing scandal," the piece went on to say.
"On behalf of the trust, I apologize unreservedly to the families who have been affected," Paula Clark, the interim chief executive of the NHS Trust, was quoted as saying.
"I would like to reassure all families using our maternity services that we have not been waiting for Donna Ockenden's final report before working to improve our services. A lot has already been done to address the issues raised by previous cases," Clark said, referring to maternity expert Donna Ockenden who has been carrying out the inquiry.
