A hospital will carry out an investigation after mothers in labour were unable to access gas and air pain relief.

Last week, an issue with ventilation on maternity wards at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford meant women in labour didn't have access to Entonox, a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide gas.

This was due to the levels of gas in the air, which could affect the health of staff who work for long periods in the labour rooms.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, who run the hospital, stressed mothers and babies were not at risk.

Sarah Shingler, the Trust's chief nursing and midwifery officer said an investigation will take place to find out what went wrong.

She explained to councillors during a meeting of Kent County Council's health overview and scrutiny committee this morning (Wednesday, November 30) how staff at the hospital first became aware of the high levels of nitrous oxide a week ago, on Wednesday, November 23.

She said: "The first priority was our staff and our women and babies.

"We looked to mitigate the risk and unfortunately, we couldn't mitigate the risk to actually prevent those levels increasing without stopping Entonox use for a period of time.

"We are so sorry to our local women, especially women who are due to give birth in the next two weeks.

"I am pleased to say we have now managed to put some mitigation in place, and two of our labour rooms will be in operation in the next 24 hours so women will then again be able to have nitrous oxide."

She went on to say women who have had to use pain relief alternatives will have had discussions about this with their midwives during the birth preparation, and no complaints about the issue had been received so far.

Staff from the Trust attended County Hall to talk about the findings of the Kirkup Review, which revealed 45 baby deaths could have been prevented.

The report concluded there had been "clear and repeated" failures of professionalism from staff at the hospitals.

Staff and councillors attending the committee offered their apologies to families affected.

Chief medical officer Dr Rebecca Martin told councillors she found the report "very harrowing to read".

She said "It is deeply distressing to hear the impact that we have had on women, on their families, on the communities, and on our staff.

"I think it has been a really difficult time but equally, there has been some really positive support, and an absolute desire to make things better, recognising the importance to our communities in getting this right."