Recent analysis has revealed that the compensation costs associated with harm caused by the NHS for mothers and their families exceed double the amount the health service spends on care each year. In 2021 – 22, the cost of harm from clinical negligence was £13.6 billion according to the Department of Health and Social Care that handles litigations. Maternity claims amounted to £8.2 billion which made 60% of the cost. The shocking truth is that only £3 billion is spent annually on Neonatal and maternity services, according to a board paper that was published in March.
According to a report by The Times, the estimate of the lump sum owed for claims, legal costs and future payments that are made periodically is defined by the current value of the estimated cost of claims or the ones received in the financial year. BabyLifeline, a charity that promotes women and newborn babies safe care, carried out research which showed that 10,000 claims were brought against the NHS in 2021-22, with a value of over £6 billion.
James Titcombe, a father and campaigner at Baby Lifeline who experienced the loss of his newborn son Joshua in 2008, was not surprised by these figures. Joshua’s death was in the centre of the Morecambe Bay investigation due to the huge failure in the maternity unit of the Furness General Hospital.
Joshua’s death resulted in an alleged cover-up throughout the trust which was exposed by the independent inquiry report of 2015. The report found that 11 infants and one mother sadly passed away needlessly at the Cumbria trust between 2004 and 2013. Mr Titcombe said, “There was basically a cover-up, medical records went missing, and there were huge discrepancies between what my wife and I knew happened and what the staff had reported as happening,” Mr Titcombe said. “That process damaged me greatly and meant the trust didn’t learn.”
The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate and the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford were responsible for various failures between 2009 and 2020, such as inadequate care resulting in substantial harm, neglecting to heed families’ concerns, and implementing measures that aggravated the distressing experiences of families. The report highlights that there were eight distinct instances where these issues could have been addressed. If care had been provided in accordance with the nationally recognised standards, 45 out of the 65 infant deaths could have been prevented.
The NHS said, “Over the last decade, the NHS has made improvements to maternity services in England — with many fewer stillbirths and neonatal deaths — but we know further extensive action is needed to improve the experiences of women and their families across the country.”
Here at UKExpertMedical, we appreciate how traumatic these cases can be. Our team will always act in the best interests of the client and solicitor to prepare Medical Negligence Reports as quickly as possible, in order that the claim can progress to a prompt conclusion. Our Medical Negligence Reports now cover Dental Negligence cases. Get in touch with our team today.
