It was interesting to read in the Law Society Gazette last week about the enormous legal fees paid by the NHS. Even though the NHS has run up a £3.1bn legal bill over the last 10 years, a study from the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) suggests that error in maternity care are still taking place. 5,087 maternity claims were filed between 2000 and 2010 making it the most costly type of litigation under the NHSLA’s management. Indeed, with care costs set to increase in the future, payouts are likely to go up as well, meaning higher legal bills for the NHS if mistakes continue at their current level.
NHS compensation claims relating to the management of labour, caesarean sections and cerebral palsy account for over a third of all litigation claims and maternity claims arising from drug errors alone cost the NHS £9m. These claims were time consuming as well as expensive, with the average settled birth injury compensation claim taking over 4 years to resolve and in cases with damages above £1m, this average increased to 8.57 years.
The report sensibly recommends a series of institutional management changes at the NHS. With mistakes carrying such high costs, it is clear that risk management requires improvement across the service, necessitating better organisation of claims and complaints, and better analysis of incidents. By encouraging better communication between staff and patients, improving staff training and establishing clear codes of practice, the report suggests that the NHS could see its maternity care improve, and its legal costs decrease.
As the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation Mike Farrar points out, we must remember how fortunate we are to have such safe maternity care in the UK, however this is not to say that the NHS should not continue to learn and improve.
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