NHS is forced to pay £1.2 billion in just a year over catastrophic maternity blunders – as cost of delivery room errors triples over the last decade

The NHS agreed to pay damages totalling more than £1billion last year after serious mistakes during childbirth.

Figures show 87 obstetrics claims were settled in which devastated families were awarded more than £5million each in compensation and future care costs.

The cost of catastrophic errors by medics in the delivery room has tripled over the past decade, from £306million in 2010 to £1.2billion last year.

A nurse is pictured taking a video of a premature baby to send to the baby's parents in Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, whose health select committee is investigating the safety of NHS maternity services, said last night: 'These shocking figures show there is so much to be done to improve maternity safety and tackle the blame culture that pits families against staff in expensive litigation battles, preventing vital lessons being learnt.

'If we had Sweden's neonatal death rate, 1,000 fewer babies would die every year.'

It comes after a report this week into the NHS's worst maternity scandal in which Mr Hunt said hundreds of babies had died needlessly because of poor care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.

The Mail reported earlier this year how mistakes on maternity wards are costing the NHS almost £1billion in annual compensation and litigation costs – almost double the bill for the salaries of every obstetrician and gynaecologist in England.

But it can be revealed today that even greater sums are being agreed each year in settlements to cover the lifetime health costs of babies who suffer brain damage during delivery and mothers who are seriously injured while giving birth.

Jeremy Hunt is pictured visiting St George's Hospital in Tooting, west London in 2017.  As Health Secretary in 2017, Mr Hunt ordered trusts to publish data on the number of avoidable deaths in hospitals – calling it the ‘biggest scandal in global healthcare’

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by this newspaper from NHS Resolution, the health service's in-house insurer, show the true cost of the most serious cases. In 2019-20, NHS Resolution settled or closed 87 obstetrics cases in which the damages paid – or the estimated total future liability – was more than £5million each. The total value of these claims was £1.2billion.

The previous year, 112 obstetrics cases of more than £5million each were settled at a total cost of £1.6billion.

At the start of the decade, in 2010-11, there were 43 such cases worth a total of £306million.

The cases cover the majority of the expenditure on the most serious clinical negligence, even though mistakes in childbirth account for only one in ten claims against the NHS.

Mr Hunt, who served as Health Secretary for nearly six years from 2012 to 2018, believes that one of the key problems is staff failing to admit to their errors

Experts say this is because maternity errors can have such profound effects on the life of the baby and its mother.

Hannah Carr, senior associate at Novum Law, said: 'Damages – particularly in the most serious of cases – do not represent a 'payout' or a 'win'. Damages in relation to obstetric claims will include injury to the mother, the baby, or both.

'In relation to birth injury claims where there is a need for lifelong and round-the-clock care, damages will cover the cost of care, accommodation, aids and equipment, therapies, education that is required.'

But she added: 'The focus should not be on the level of damages... but why avoidable harm continues to be caused. There are persisting failures.'

Judy Ledger, founder of the charity Baby Lifeline, said last night: 'These figures show that both the number and total value of obstetric claims over £5million have been increasing over the last ten years. Sadly, this is not surprising for us.

'This says nothing of the life-changing costs to families across the UK, whose baby has suffered a catastrophic brain injury or died in circumstances which are potentially avoidable.'

This week's devastating report by midwife Donna Ockenden into the Shrewsbury and Telford scandal exposed a culture of telling women to avoid caesarean sections despite the risks, yet bereaved mothers were blamed by callous staff for their babies' deaths.

The latest in a series of investigations into maternity scandals, it called for 'immediate action' to prevent more deaths and serious injuries.