Avoidable harm to mothers and babies before, during and after childbirth, causes deep anguish and often lifelong trauma for families. It is also places a significant financial burden on public funds when claims are made.
Learning from past cases and implementing best practice is important so the funding offered to implement a new training programme is to be welcomed but does this go far enough?
I see repeated failures by NHS Trusts around the country to learn from past harm and sadly knowledge is not widely shared. To make a difference the government really needs to properly invest in this programme for it to make a meaningful difference.
Backed by £7.8 million in government funding, training will help maternity staff better identify and act quickly when babies are in distress during labour
The Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) pilot is launching today (7 October 2024) across 9 maternity units at NHS trusts and aims to improve maternity outcomes for women and babies.
The scheme is also expected to reduce the rising cost of clinical negligence. At present, maternity cases account for around 10% of clinical negligence claims and equate to more than 50% of the total value of clinical negligence payments. In 2018 to 2019, claims related to brain damage at birth had a value of £1.86 billion, with individual cases costing up to £30 million.