AIBU to think this maternity negligence payout seems disproportionately high

YABU

Lifelong care will be very expensive

What about the family of the next one affected by a shortfall in the budget?

If the child needs constant 1:1 care 24/7 then that would equate to more than £200k per year.

If she has severe epilepsy, which often happens with brain damage at birth, then there will need to be professionally trained care workers in the home at all times. Plus one of the parents will have to give up work I imagine.

The payment is staggered to reflect that annual cost of care.

Tell that to the family of the young girl who was disabled for life by their negligence

I do think clinical negligence is somehow different to other corporate neglience - and these type of cases may create very high incentives not to admit care could have been better. It may discourage people from certain jobs / roles in medicine etc - especially where as in our current case the underlying funding model may make excellent care difficult.

Its very hard though to think of any other solution because at somepoint clear cut negilence which no society could freely tolerate from its medical professionals especially when they mostly operate under a monolopistic nationalised framework, bleeds into structural poor practice / local poor practice / bad luck etc.

So overall I think we are lucky that we have a court system that tries to mediate these cases and has some logical process for determining where that line sits - in this case neglience was found, and the value of awards to compensate. I am not sure I can think of an alternative, free(ish) from political interference system.

its a shit system I agree. I don’t disagree with the fact they got a payout but unfortunately that is x amount less to spend on improving things.

The whole thing needs to be changed

Apparently not. It’s from the NHS budget, which many people don’t realise

www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/nhs-reforms/nhs-clinical-negligence-reform

Quite. But that child shouldn't suffer a lifetime with no compensation from the system that is failing and failed.

And negligence is more likely to happen in a system that isn’t fit for purpose.

But you don't have to pay them if you're not negligent. The lesson should be: don't be negligent.

I’m not defending a corporation - I’m saying it’s not fit for purpose but having to pay compo claims isn’t going to help.

I agree about management etc, fwiw. I would rather money go into providing services for all.

The BBC headline is misleading people.

I, for one, am shocked. I thought so much better of the BBC 😝

For those who haven't read the article:

"the trust must pay a lump sum of £8m, followed by an annual sum of £225,000 for 10 years, with further annual payments of £335,000 after that."

The family haven't 'got' £28 million. The BBC headline is misleading people.

I think it has insurance for this doesn’t it? Although I know the insurance itself will cost. Considering the shit state of maternity care in this country in not surprised we need to ability to pay out like this, but appreciate it could be a bit chicken and egg!

By adult insurance I mean things like car insurance claims. If you are in a car accident, a doctor will receive a higher personal injury payout than a cleaner.

This isn't the type of thing that brings the NHS to its knees, though. I'd rather this money be going to this child, who did nothing wrong to anyone, than management in a archaic machine of incompetence.

Anyone defending a corporation over a child has some weird values, IMO.

But why? A family of doctors will be disproportionately affected (financially) than a family of say cleaners as discussed in another post, compensation is handled case by case.

I agree it’s a ridiculous amount of money, the NHS is on its knees yet it has to fund compo claims itself. So that money could be used to improve services, but instead that is a new hole in the budget

Yes this is what my friend has got. They are spending years working on the case and will only get paid if they win.

Which is fine, but changing this would require root and branch reform rather than just deciding those principles shouldn't apply in this one area whilst they still persist elsewhere. As we have insurance and legal systems that broadly allow for earnings to be taken into account, it's not equitable to decide the NHS get to opt out of that when they've fucked up so badly a child is disabled for life.

If you have a clear cut and dry case a lot of lawyers will take it on a no win no fee basis.

Have you ever met a family with a child whose injuries are like this girl’s? This is a lifelong impact on the whole family due to the hospital’s negligence

the worst thing of all is quite often lessons are not learnt from one tragedy and the reason the nhs negligence bill is so high is that things like this keep happening

Funding is obviously part of the issue but also leadership (or lack of). Look at the various reports about maternity care problems around the country

claims like this are accessible to all if the need is there and that money funds carers, therapies, and all the stuff that the girl and her family will need for her whole lifetime

don’t just believe the gutter press commentary on things like this