featured-image

The NHS has spent £4.1bn over the last 11 years settling lawsuits involving babies who suffered brain damage when being born, amid claims that maternity units are not learning from mistakes. It paid out just under £3.

6bn in damages in 1,307 cases in which parents were left to care for a baby with cerebral palsy or other forms of brain injury, NHS figures reveal. NHS Resolution, which defends hospitals in England accused of medical negligence, spent another £490m on legal fees, taking the total cost of dealing with the legal actions to £4.077bn.



“These figures are shocking and also a tragedy. They should set alarm bells ringing across the NHS,” said Robert Rose of Lime Solicitors, which obtained the data under freedom of information laws. “These mistakes in maternity care just keep happening.

We’re stuck in a cycle of repetition of these sorts of mistakes – a continuing circle of negligence. It is a scandal that lessons are not being learned [by hospitals],” he added. A single case in which a baby is brain-damaged, often because they were deprived of oxygen during their mother’s labour, can cost the NHS up to £20m to settle because of the high costs of caring for a child with particularly significant needs across their lifetime.

In such cases, newborns often end up with serious cognitive and physical disabilities, including jerky movements and an inability to see, speak and learn normally. The £4.1bn bill for the 1,307 brain-damaged babies is further eviden.

Back to Health Page