This week I've finalised a claim for almost £20 million for a girl with cerebral palsy caused by negligent management of her birth. The following day I read in the paper that “The Care Quality Commission has written to bosses at Shrewsbury and Telford Trust to warn that it was not properly assessing high-risk pregnant women or following best practice guidelines, including providing appropriate levels of consultant input. Midwives were not properly supervised when carrying out scans to monitor a baby’s heart rate, the commission said. Incorrect interpretation of such scans was among the most common causes of injury to babies during birth.”.

I see many cases across the country where the scans are not interpreted properly, leading to catastrophic injury.

At the same time, I read continuous complaints by the NHS that it’s having to pay out large sums of compensation and lawyers’ costs.

When will they join up the lines, and realise that mismanagement of the birth process destroys lives and costs a fortune? Good management of units, training of staff, ongoing assessment of ability at all levels particularly including consultants, supervision, and destruction of the culture of always denying that they have been negligent; these normal business steps would save them a fortune.