Shropshire maternity scandal: Almost £40 million paid in compensation - as hospitals trust benefited from £1m scheme for 'good care'
The NHS has paid almost £40 million in compensation to parents whose babies died or were left with disabilities after care at Shropshire's two main hospitals, it has emerged.
It comes as it has also emerged that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) benefited from almost £1 million from a maternity incentive scheme.
Data shows there have been scores of clinical negligence claims by families since 2006-07 due to mistakes in care at SaTH, which runs Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
In total, 82 claims against the trust were made, with 52 cases settled at a total cost of £47.5m, including £39.2m in compensation.
The vast majority of this money is used to cover the costs of caring for permanently disabled babies for the rest of their lives.
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It is understood that 40 claims are still being investigated by NHS Resolution, the body which handles negligence claims on behalf of hospitals.
Cases where compensation has been paid have involved seven deaths, as well as those involving brain damage, cerebral palsy and stillbirths.
Reasons for the mistakes included delays in treatments, failures to respond to abnormal fetal heart rates and failures to recognise complications.
It has also emerged that the trust was offered a financial reprieve of almost £1 million after meeting the criteria of a maternity incentive scheme, which aims to improve maternity care and is run by NHS Resolution.
Safety standards
It happened last year, just weeks before the trust was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission.
Trusts pay a contribution to be part of the scheme and are given a discount as an incentive if they meet 10 safety standards.
To qualify for an incentive payment, the board of a trust had to certify that they met all the standards.
NHS Resolution did not ensure each trust had met its requirements.
SaTH, which certified that it met the criteria, benefited from a discount of nearly £1m.
Maternity services at the county's hospitals are at the centre of an independent inquiry, with hundreds of allegations of poor care stretching back 40 years.
A leaked report into the inquiry last month revealed a catalogue of concerns and that dozens of babies and mothers are thought to have died or been left disabled due to poor care at the trust.
The trust said evidence of its progress against the maternity safety actions had been shared with committees before being submitted to its board.
SaTH, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, says the content of the report was also shared with the trust’s commissioners.
Paula Clark, chief executive of the trust, said: “The loss of, or serious injury to, a baby is a tragedy. When mistakes happen which cause or contribute to this, we have a moral duty to ensure that we learn from this and we apologise when the care we have provided is not what it should have been.
"We have learned and continue to learn from these terrible experiences.
Staff numbers
“We have made a lot of improvements particularly around increasing staff numbers in line with national recommendations and in staff training and technology.
"We were pleased to receive feedback from the Care Quality Commission recently, that our governance processes are effective and have driven improvements, our staffing levels meet patients’ needs and mothers themselves told inspectors they were treated by staff who were kind and compassionate.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, and this remains one of the top priorities for this trust.”
A spokesman for NHS Resolution said: "Trust submissions through the maternity incentive scheme are required to be signed off by the trust chief executive and the trust board prior to submission to NHS Resolution.
"Additionally, submissions are discussed prior to sign off by the trust with the trust commissioner.
"Trust submissions are also subject to a range of external verification points, these include cross checking with: MBRRACE-UK data, NHS Digital and the National Neonatal Research Database.
"The rules also state that if subsequent verification checks demonstrate that an incorrect declaration has been made, this may indicate failure in governance which we may escalate to the appropriate arm’s length body/NHS system leader."
