Four babies a week are brain-damaged by NHS blunders

THE number of babies left brain-damaged by NHS blunders has soared to four a week.

Figures show that claims against maternity units for botched births leapt by almost a quarter last year.

Parents made 232 claims against the NHS in 2016/17 – about 20 a month – the highest figure for 11 years.

And the total value of compensation payouts for brain damage and cerebral palsy was the highest on record, up nearly a third to £1.9billion, according to an official NHS report. That worked out at an average of more than £8million per child.

However, NHS officials believe that future payouts could exceed £20million per child.

Safety experts last night blamed a ‘cultlike fixation’ with so-called natural births with minimal medical intervention for the errors and record negligence bills.

It comes days after the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) dropped its ‘campaign for normal birth’ and indicated women will no longer be advised to have babies without medical intervention. The hard-line agenda was blamed for the deaths of 11 babies and one mother at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay maternity unit in Cumbria. An inquiry into the scandal between 2004 and 2013 attributed it to a ‘dysfunctional culture’ spearheaded by a gang of ‘musketeer midwives’.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of the Action against Medical Accidents campaigning group, said staff shortages could also be behind the huge increase in botched births.

Mr Walsh said: ‘ More research needs to be done, but moving away from the cultlike fixation with so-called “normal birth” is a step in the right direction.

‘It is likely that this and also staffing issues has led to delays in intervention to protect babies and their mothers.

‘No mother should be made to feel abnormal because an intervention is needed, and patient safety should always be the first concern.’

The figures were revealed in the 2016/17 annual report of NHS Resolution, which handles litigation action against the Health Service.

It showed that although childbirth accounted for just 10 per cent of the 10,866 claims received by the NHS in 2016/17, they represented 50 per cent of the value of all claims – up from 43 per cent the year before.

The report said: ‘These types of claims include cases where a child tragically suffers brain damage at birth and as a result they will frequently have complex lifelong care needs.

‘ The value of these cases reflects the complex nature of the injuries and the subsequent care required and under today’s legal framework… could exceed £20million for one child.’

NHS Resolution said the number of claims for cerebral palsy and brain damage follow- ing childbirth rose from 188 in 2015/16 to 232 in 2016/17 – up 23 per cent. This is the highest total since 2005/06, when it was 255.

The value of the claims has increased almost every year over the past decade. Last year it rose 30 per cent to £1.9million. In 2004/05 the total value was £363million.

Patient safety specialist James Titcombe, whose baby Joshua died due to failings at Morecambe Bay NHS trust in 2008, said: ‘The idea of normal birth at any cost has had dangerous consequences. Part of this is the language makes women who don’t have a “normal birth” feel like a failure, but it’s also about the fact it leaves too many women and babies at risk, at a point when midwives should be asking for help [from doctors].’

Last night health minister Philip Dunne welcomed the fact that the RCM had ended its campaign for normal births.

He added: ‘The NHS is already one of the safest places in the world to give birth.

‘But we want NHS maternity care to be even better and have made tackling such tragic failures a priority.’

‘Cult-like fixation with normal birth’