It’s something we hear all too often, how the NHS is failing us and how our maternity services are letting us down. Sometimes we seem to take for granted just how fortunate we are to have a free healthcare system. According to a Government report, more than 300 mothers-to-be were stopped at Gatwick Airport over a 2 year period. They were flying into the UK just days before they were due to give birth so they could receive free care on the NHS.
Many of these women were subsequently admitted to NHS hospitals to give birth, as their pregnancies were too advanced for them to fly home, risking birth injuries. Typically airlines don’t allow women more than 36 weeks pregnant to fly, so how did these expectant mothers get here in the first place? They obtained forged doctor’s notes from their home country, hiding the actual length of their pregnancy.
The Government refers to this practice as a type of “health tourism”, a phenomenon which costs the NHS as much as £80m a year (enough to pay for about 2,000 nurses). However, the true figure may be far higher. At Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London (where the event is so common, the staff refer to the flow of West African women flying in to give birth as the "Lagos Shuttle") it’s estimated they alone may be losing more than £5m a year.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee released a report on maternity services in England which claimed 14 babies die on NHS maternity wards every day, with many units being desperately understaffed and half not having enough consultants. It said there were 5,183 such tragedies in England in 2011, with only a handful of European countries (including France, Austria, Latvia, Bosnia and Romania) having a worse rate. It also found that about £480 million, nearly a fifth of trusts' spending on maternity services, was set aside for clinical negligence cover, which was equivalent to £700 per every birth in England.
And it was these figures, the amounts put aside for clinical negligence claims, which seemed to make the headlines, with the breakdown of costs referring to birthing negligence shown as per baby being perhaps one of the most misleading. This can make it appear as though everyone giving birth in hospital is looking for a way to make maternity negligence claims, where in reality families of injured babies think long and hard before pursuing a compensation claim.
When things do go wrong at birth the results can be catastrophic, with children requiring lifelong specialised care. This therefore (and rightly so) can result in high payouts in order to cover the associated costs of maternity negligence. All these families are trying to do, afterall, is secure the best care for their child.
Thankfully, most pregnancies and births go smoothly; however, when something does go wrong it can be very serious.
We Can Help
If you feel your midwife or doctor failed to diagnose a condition or treat you correctly and then has resulted in some kind of injury to you or your baby, either during pregnancy or labour, you may be able to make a compensation claim for clinical negligence. Our friendly specialist advisors can talk to you about your situation and see if you have a valid compensation claim. There is no charge for this service and you are under no obligation to claim with us.
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http://info.mayiclaim.co.uk/personal_injury_compensation_claim_news/bid/336875/Is-Health-Tourism-Exposing-Mothers-to-be-to-Maternity-Negligence
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