'Tragic' maternity care failings drive huge rise in clinical negligence claims, report finds
“Tragic failings” in maternity care are partly behind a huge rise in clinical negligence claims against the NHS, a new report has found.
In a new investigation, the Public Accounts Committee of MPs found that the Government’s liability for these kinds of claims has quadrupled over the last 20 years to £60bn in 2024-25.
It said the NHS and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) have not taken enough action to address this, with the costs “representing many tragic incidences of patient harm”.
In particular, the PAC cited a rise in cases to do with maternity care, which has turned into a national scandal.
Chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP said: “This is a swelling accounting of profound suffering.
“Each case can represent unspeakable devastation for the victims involved, and the overall picture is of a system struggling to keep its patients safe from avoidable harm.
“Indeed, the rising costs of such claims are diverting resources away from frontline care badly in need of them.
“Tragic failings in maternity care are one driver of this trend, and one of many problems within this system which we can see government has failed to address.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting recently announced a public inquiry into failures in Leeds, after a BBC investigation revealed the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the past five years may have been prevented.
Devastated parents said they felt gaslit, dismissed and even blamed for what went wrong.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post from Barnsley yesterday, Mr Streeting said: “I want to get this up and running as quickly as possible.
“I also want to take the families with me. We are discussing the chair and the terms of reference - there’s a lot of back and forth on that.”
The bereaved families have called for Donna Ockenden - the senior who has been leading maternity reviews in Nottingham and Shrewsbury and Telford - to take charge of the Leeds inquiry, although the Government has said she will not have capacity.
Mr Streeting continued: “We are considering very carefully the arguments and the representations that the families are making.
“It has been a privilege working with the Leeds families.
“It has also been extremely painful in terms of the suffering they have been through and listening to them describe the unimaginable loss they have experienced, the harm that they have experienced, the bereavement and the injustice.
“I really don’t want to let them down - I’m doing everything I can to make sure we get this right.”
Mr Streeting has also appointed Baroness Amos to lead a wider investigation into maternity care, which is currently accepting evidence.
In her interim findings, she warned NHS maternity units are delivering “unacceptable care”, with some women left to “bleed out” in bathrooms and babies suffering avoidable deaths.
A DHSC spokesperson said: “This government inherited an NHS that was failing too many people.
“We have taken rapid action to strengthen patient safety - overhauling the Care Quality Commission, rolling out Martha’s Rule and Jess’s Rule so patients can get a fresh clinical review, and introducing hospital league tables to drive improvement.
“We have also brought in new maternity safety measures, are conducting an urgent investigation of failings and are establishing a taskforce, so every mother can have confidence in NHS care once again.”