The cost of making negligent medical mistakes which lead to birthing injuries, including cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy and in some cases fatal injuries, has been reviewed by the National Audit Office. It has been stated that nearly £500m was spent last year on compensation for clinical negligence involving birthing injuries in the nation’s labour wards.
It has been said that for every live birth in the NHS, £700 is spent on cover against such claims. The chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee has criticised this expenditure, and told the BBC that the NHS would need to take responsibility to improve its services significantly in order to avoid such sums being paid.
The Department of Health has responded by saying that the NHS is one of the safest places in the world in which to give birth, but the figures released do cause some concern. There may be many reasons behind such expenditure, such as increases in the number of births, increases in the number of claims brought and increases in the levels of compensation involved.
Luckily, there don’t appear to be any government plans to limit the number of births per person (let’s not hold our breath). The number of claims brought could have increased because of a better public knowledge of claiming for clinical negligence, which itself is a relatively new area of law. The levels of compensation are bound to increase over time, particularly with compensation for things such as life-long care involved in a birthing injury case where the carer’s wages increase every year along with inflation.
However, the main reason for the increase in expenditure is because of negligent treatment. If the treatment stops being negligent, the claims and costs stop too. Claims are only ever successful in cases where negligent treatment has been given. As Solicitors, we appreciate that we cannot live in a perfect world where every treatment given is of a gold standard, but the clients with whom we deal on a day to day basis, have received negligent treatment which is far below this gold standard.
The best way to stop throwing money at claims of, and cover for, clinical negligence is instead to throw money at the services provided, with better facilities, more staff and improved knowledge.
We will need to wait and see whether the NHS agrees with us.
Joseph Norton
Waldrons Solicitors Blog 