Former healthcare watchdog, HSIB, has now handed over its patient safety investigations programmes to HSSIB and MNSI. HSIB’s transformation to HSSIB finally took effect on 1st October 2023. This means that HSIB’s national investigations...
England’s healthcare safety watchdog, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), has published its maternity investigations programme’s 2022/23 annual review. The report highlights HSIB’s recent work to identify and alert the...
The NHS’s defence organisation, NHS Resolution, have published their annual report and accounts for the year 2022 to 2023. NHS Resolution’s annual round up sets out the financial cost of harm from medical negligence looking back over the last...
A review by the NHS Race and Health Observatory has found that babies of Black, Asian and ethnic minority ethnicity have a higher risk of delayed diagnosis of serious neonatal conditions which are diagnosed by assessment of skin colour. The...
A report by The King’s Fund has highlighted the need for better support for unpaid carers. The report, Caring in a Complex World , says that each year in England, unpaid family carers provide the equivalent of 4 million paid care workers or 7.9...
Less than two months since the government announced a six-month delay in MNSI’s takeover of Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) Maternity Investigation Programme, health ministers have now said that HSIB’s maternity...
Healthcare watchdog, HSIB, has reviewed over 200 recommendations made in its maternity programme investigations to identify how risk assessment affects safety in maternity care during pregnancy, labour and birth. HSIB’s findings are published in...
Read our latest article "HSIB's patient safety investigations are now handled by HSSIB and MNSI". The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that HSIB’s imminent handover of its maternity and healthcare safety...
The NHS’s defence organisation, NHS Resolution, has published its latest report on the Early Notification (EN) Scheme . The second report: The evolution of the Early Notification Scheme promotes NHS Resolution’s efforts to reduce the length...
Healthcare safety watchdog, HSIB, has reported on a year of maternity safety incident investigations. The report, HSIB maternity investigation programme year in review 2021/22, looks back at HSIB’s investigations into the deaths of mothers, and the ...
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has published its report on the Re:Birth Project which asked women and birthing people, their families and maternity professionals about the type of language that should be used in conversations and clinical records during...
The NHS’s defence organisation, NHS Resolution, has published its strategic plan for the next three years, ‘ Advise, Resolve and Learn ’. For the first time, maternity is at the top of the to do list as a stand-alone strategic...
This Action for Brain Injury Week, charities, campaigners and other supporters of people with acquired brain injury (ABI) are raising awareness of the hidden challenges that come with the condition, and inviting us to #SeeTheHiddenMe. It is well known for...
The final report of the Ockenden Maternity Review has found that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust ‘failed to investigate, failed to learn and failed to improve and therefore often failed to safeguard mothers and their babies at one of the...
UPDATE - You can now read about HSIB's full report here. HSIB have launched an investigation into the way that ethnicity affects the detection of neonatal jaundice. The healthcare watchdog will explore the safety issues associated with delayed...
Healthcare watchdog, HSIB, have published their latest national investigation report, Emergency neonatal blood transfusion at birth following acute blood loss during labour and/or delivery . The national investigation was launched following...
NHS maternity services in England must stop limiting the number of caesarean sections they perform to meet ‘unsafe’ targets. According to media sources, including The Guardian newspaper and the BBC, a letter from NHS maternity chiefs has asked...
Healthcare watchdog, HSIB, has published its latest national investigation report, Maternity pre-arrival instructions by 999 call handlers . The national investigation followed an HSIB maternity investigation into the telephone advice given by a...
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, has told Parliament that the government plans to set up a Special Health Authority to continue the work of the HSIB’s maternity investigation programme. The announcement appears to...
Maternity charity, Baby Lifeline’s report, Mind the Gap 2021: An Investigation into Maternity Training for Frontline Professionals Across the UK (2020/21), says gaps in maternity training in NHS hospitals are putting mothers and babies at risk. The...
In July 2021 the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee’s report into the safety of maternity services in England condemned the rate of improvement in NHS maternity care as too slow. Amongst its findings, the Committee, chaired by former...
Healthcare watchdog, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (also known as HSIB), has published its 2020/21 maternity programme review. The report looks back on the work that HSIB has carried out to investigate patient safety incidents arising from NHS...
Healthcare watchdog, HSIB, has published its latest national learning report into maternity safety, focussing on the suitability of continuous fetal heart rate monitoring equipment used in pregnancy and labour. HSIB’s report , Suitability of equipment...
A report by the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee inquiry into maternity services in England, chaired by Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt , has condemned the rate of improvement in NHS maternity care as too slow. The committee’s conclusions are based...
In 2019 the National Institute of Health Research funded a trial to look at whether a regular test for group B strep (GBS) infection would improve the prevention of early onset group B streptococcal infections in babies. The trial was to be held across...
Each Baby Counts ( EBC ), the RCOG’s maternity improvement programme which hoped to halve the number of term babies who die or suffer brain injury during birth, has published its final report. The Each Baby Counts 2020 Final Progress...
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has published its latest national learning report into maternity safety: Severe brain injury, early neonatal death and intrapartum stillbirth associated with larger babies and shoulder dystocia. ...
The Ockenden Review of Maternity Services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has called for ‘immediate and essential’ action across maternity services in England to improve maternity safety. What is the Ockenden Review? The Ockenden...
The law relating to the amount of compensation that a severely injured person can claim for the extra cost of buying a home suitable for their disability has changed. The Court of Appeal has ruled that claimants whose injuries leave them with special...
NHS Resolution, the organisation which defends the NHS against clinical negligence claims, has published its annual report for 2019 to 2020. The report contains the usual headline-grabbing figures for compensation paid to patients injured by negligent care,...
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) latest national learning report has highlighted the need for better care to avoid harm to newborn babies from unsafe skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth. The report follows HSIB’s...
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch or HSIB have published a national learning report from their investigations of maternity and neonatal errors in GBS (group B strep) care resulting in serious birth and neonatal injury to babies. The national...
Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee has launched a new inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England. The announcement and ‘call for evidence’ follows a call by former Health Secretary , Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP,...
This week, the families of babies who died or suffered brain injury as a result of negligent maternity care at two maternity units run by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust begin sharing their experiences with the panel of investigators...
We hear a lot about the importance of good hydration. People who are interested in health or fitness make sure that they are drinking plenty of water. In childbirth, excess water consumption can leave the bloodstream dangerously short of sodium (salt). This...
Parents who are trying to come to terms with a newborn baby’s brain injury often feel frustrated at the lack of clear information. They know that something serious happened at birth. They may even have been contacted by NHS Resolution , the NHS...
One in four births in the UK takes place by caesarean section. That means that 25% of mothers either need or want to have their baby by surgical operation. Some of these will try to give birth vaginally but find that concerns about their own or the...
Contractions of the mother’s uterus (womb) are a natural part of childbirth. Successful labour and vaginal delivery depend on the mother’s uterine contractions opening (dilating) the cervix and pushing the baby down into the birth canal. ...
According to the NHS , twin and multiple pregnancies are becoming more common. Today, 1 in 65 births in the UK are twins or multiple babies, compared with 1 in 100 in 1984. Twin pregnancies carry greater risks for the mother and baby than...
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have published new guidelines setting out recommended minimum standards of safe antenatal and postnatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new guidelines...
When a pregnant woman is advised to have a vaginal delivery after her previous child was born by caesarean section, she must be properly advised and her labour carefully managed to reduce her risk of uterine rupture. The Royal College of Obstetricians...
Each Baby Counts, the maternity care improvement programme run by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) which aims to reduce the number of stillbirths, neonatal deaths and babies who are brain-damaged at birth, has published its latest...
HSIB has published its long-awaited first national learning report into maternity safety since taking over responsibility for investigating incidents of brain damage, stillbirth and neonatal injury to babies, and maternal deaths, in April 2018. The report...
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recently told NHS maternity services in England to improve faster ‘to ensure that women and babies get consistently good, safe care’. In its March 2020 report, ‘ Getting safer faster: key areas...
We are all familiar with everyday vitamins, such as vitamins A, B, C, D and E, but how much do you know about vitamin K? Most adults who are eating a healthy diet will never need extra vitamin K because their bodies produce enough of it naturally. For...
Former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has called for an independent enquiry into maternity safety in the NHS. According to The Independent , he is calling for a probe into why poor care and cover-ups are being repeated at different hospitals to find out...
Susan Brown has dedicated her specialist legal career spanning over 25 years to helping brain-injured and severely disabled children and their families rebuild their lives after negligently caused birth and neonatal injury. Nationally acclaimed and...
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), a professional body of specialist lawyers who act for people harmed as a result of negligence, has called for NHS Resolution to tell them what they are advising parents of babies who have been brain-injured...
Over the years, I have helped hundreds of families whose lives have been shattered by their baby suffering a brain injury at birth. With experience, I have learned to recognise mistakes in maternity care, and the types of injury that are caused by many...
Earlier this year, the government confirmed that in the 2018/2019 financial year, the NHS made 105 compensation settlements of over £1million to babies disabled for life by medical negligence. In the same year, Boyes Turner’s cerebral...
Measuring an unborn baby’s heart rate is a very good way of checking their health during labour and birth. A normal heart rate can reassure healthcare professionals that it is safe to continue labour if no other problems are present. On the other...
Are you confused by neonatal jaundice? If so, you are probably not alone. This is because neonatal jaundice is often described as a common condition which is usually harmless and resolves in a few days, but also as a potentially dangerous condition which can...
The NHS defence organisation, NHS Resolution, claims that its Early Notification Scheme offers support for families of babies who were born at full term but suffered hypoxic (lack of oxygen) brain injury from mistakes in maternity care. Promoted by NHS...
From the moment we agree to pursue a client’s medical negligence case, our focus is on obtaining an admission of liability. This acknowledgement of fault is of the utmost importance to our clients. It recognises that something outside of their control...
The government has confirmed that its former plans for maternity safety investigations to be carried out by the Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), the new statutory successor to the HSIB, have been removed from the Health Service Safety...
It’s the festive season and for any child that has to mean TOYS! For parents, grandparents and anyone else involved in meeting the child’s ‘Santa’ expectations, filling a stocking isn’t always that simple. High hopes and...
Each baby’s birth is a journey of multiple stages from pregnancy through labour and delivery into their first few days of life. The safety of the birth process and the mother and baby’s health and wellbeing are often managed by a team of health...
Every year in England between 4,000 and 5,000 babies are born prematurely before 30 weeks’ gestation. Prematurity increases the risk of various serious conditions, including cerebral palsy. The risk of developing cerebral palsy is around 10% for babies...
When a child suffers a brain injury it takes specialist skills to understand and untangle the various ways in which the injury will affect their life. Their ability to think, perceive, process information, function and communicate may be impaired, affecting...
A difficult and detailed, but vitally important, part of our role is to predict and value the needs of an infant with cerebral palsy into adulthood and throughout their life. Like any child, their needs will change as they grow and develop, but for...
For many parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) the process of finding and obtaining a placement at the right school for their child can be confusing, frustrating and exhausting. It takes considerable time, paperwork, persistence and an...
Children love the school holidays but as all parents know, holidays need planning, particularly when the family includes a disabled child. So, with summer almost here, here are a few ‘staycation’ holiday opportunities for disabled children to...
When someone mentions birth injury or birth trauma, we may immediately think about injuries to the baby’s head and brain, or physical and/or psychological injury to the mother. Whilst these types of injury are more commonly talked about in the NHS and...
The parent’s dilemma: my child has cerebral palsy - do I cope or question? Living with severe disability can be stressful. It’s only natural that parents who have experienced a difficult birth or neonatal injury to their child often try to set...
Susan Brown has over twenty years' experience of working for people who have been injured as a result of medical negligence. We asked Susan to share her insight into some of the worries expressed by families who are considering claiming their...
We asked Boyes Turner partner, Ruth Meyer , about how she supports children with cerebral palsy andtheir families through her role in the Court of Protection team . Ruth qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and is also a qualified New York attorney....
When a baby is born with brain injury after suffering from lack of oxygen at birth , the severity of their injury (e.g. moderate to severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy or HIE) and their chances of survival will determine whether they must be treated...
A research study has recently been launched to find out more about the rising numbers of second stage caesarean sections in the UK which are complicated by impaction of the fetal head and in turn lead to injury to both mother and baby. What is the second...
As high value medical negligence claims specialists helping severely disabled children and adults achieve compensation to meet their lifelong needs, clients often ask us: What happens after the settlement? Won’t I be vulnerable with so much money? How...
As specialist serious injury solicitors, we know the many ways that life can be altered after a brain injury, not just for the injured person but for their family too. It is important both for the individual and their family that they can get out of the...
Much of the work we do here in the medical negligence team at Boyes Turner is aimed at securing compensation to meet all the individual needs of our disabled clients throughout their lives. While our role is to assist with the litigation process, we also...
Cerebral palsy specialist, Susan Brown , has been recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers Directory for her expertise in maximum severity claims for more than a decade. In this article we asked Susan about one of the most important concerns for a family...
The Lord Chancellor has now begun a review of the personal injury discount rate. This will inevitably lead to a significant reduction in compensation payments for severely injured victims of negligence. It follows on from the Civil Liability Act...
There is currently no cure for cerebral palsy . The injury to the brain which causes the condition, and its effects, are permanent. The functional impairments and disabilities which arise from the condition are managed by a range of treatments or...
Medical negligence partner, Richard Money-Kyrle, has been recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers Directory for his expertise in maximum severity claims for more than a decade. As a specialist in achieving high value awards for clients with cerebral palsy...
The aim of a claim for personal injury or clinical negligence is to put the injured person back in the position they were in before they sustained an injury. As experienced injury lawyers, we know that this is almost impossible to achieve in reality. ...
The latest progress report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ (RCOG) maternity quality improvement programme, Each Baby Counts , has revealed that in 2016, in the UK, 1,123 term babies were severely brain damaged at...
Moving abroad after your child suffers catastrophic injury from medical negligence in England or Wales shouldn't prevent you from making a claim for compensation . Serious injury claims should always be handled by solicitors with specialist...
In April 2018 I reported on the announcement by the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt, that the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) would be extending its remit to investigate 1,000 maternity incidents per year....
The Parliamentary Joint Committee has reported on the draft Health Service Safety Investigations Bill , which sets out the government’s plans for an independent Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) to carry out ‘safe space’...
NHS Resolution, the special health authority originally known as the NHS Litigation Authority and now rebranded to " resolve claims against the NHS fairly, share learning for improvement and preserve resources for patient care" , has published its...
Boyes Turner’s cerebral palsy claims lawyers have secured millions of pounds in compensation for families caring for children with a permanent disability caused by negligent medical care. We are committed to using our nationally acclaimed expertise...
In a recent post Each Baby Counts report on anaesthetic care - Maternity safety depends on teamwork I commented on the latest report from the RCOG’s Each Baby Counts programme which reviewed the ways in which delays in anaesthetic care...
Following the publication in 2017 of the landmark report, Each Baby Counts , the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has now reported on the anaesthetic aspects of care given to the mothers of 49 of the babies who were originally...
Meconium can be both a sign and a cause of oxygen deprivation. In the absence of careful management during labour and delivery and immediately after birth, it can lead to brain injury, cerebral palsy and permanent disability. What is meconium? Meconium...
As the Parliamentary Joint Committee hears evidence on the Draft Health Service Safety Investigations Bill which will establish the Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) and empower it to investigate NHS patient safety incidents, the Association...
Mismanaged vaginal breech births, in which the baby’s position means that it is born bottom first or foot first instead of head first, have been found to give rise to a disproportionate number of successful, high value compensation claims. As the...
Following last year’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) consultation on the Personal Injury Discount Rate and the MOJ’s proposed draft legislation to reform the way that the discount rate should be set in future, the Civil Liability...
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) extends its remit this month to investigate certain types of maternity incidents, including intrapartum stillbirth, early neonatal deaths, perinatal maternal deaths and severe brain injuries in...
Disability charity, Scope, has published its new policy report, The disability price tag, in which it identifies some of the ways in which life costs more for disabled people. The report calls on government and businesses to act fast to tackle the...
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the results of its 2017 Survey of Women’s Experiences in Maternity Care. The results of the survey have been reported to demonstrate that of the 18,426 women who gave birth in February 2017 across 130...
The RCOG has now published its full Each Baby Counts report, following its analysis of over 700 cases of stillbirth, neonatal death and severe brain injury in term babies in 2015. The Each Baby Counts programme reflects the RCOG’s...
NHS Resolution has published the findings of a five-year review of cerebral palsy claims, Five Years of Cerebral Palsy Claims: A thematic review of NHS Resolution Data. The review looked at 50 maternity incidents which took place between 2012 and...
Following the outcome of the Personal Injury Discount Rate consultation, The Personal Injury Discount Rate: How Should It Be Set In Future the Ministry of Justice has invited comments on its proposed draft legislation before Parliament...
In the first few days after birth, before regular and adequate feeding is established, babies often need help with managing their blood glucose levels. Newborns with low birth-weights (below 2.5kg) or those born to diabetic mothers are at increased risk of...
The Ministry of Justice has published its response to the consultation, The Personal Injury Discount rate: How Should It Be Set In Future? The consultation was launched on 30 th March 2017, a month after the Lord Chancellor announced...
NHS Resolution, (formerly NHSLA), has presented its Annual Report and Accounts for 2016 -2017 to Parliament. The annual report is the first following the expansion of its remit and change of strategic focus and argues NHS Resolution’s case...
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the midwifery trade union, have confirmed that they are bringing to an end their 12-year-long campaign to promote “normal” births. In a statement dated 14 th August, the RCM confirmed that following its...
NHS Resolution, the newly rebranded NHS Litigation Authority, has issued a leaflet for healthcare practitioners about the importance of saying sorry when things go wrong. In an open demonstration of NHS Resolution’s new focus on upstream...
In a recent post I commented on the RCOG’s report, Each Baby Counts . The report, published in June, reiterated the commitment of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to reduce by half the number of stillbirths,...
July is International Group B Strep Awareness Month and we’re helping raise awareness about the risks of group B streptococcal (GBS) infection to newborn babies. GBS is a common bacterium that is carried harmlessly by one in five women,...
It’s Cerebra’s head awareness week and we’re working with the charity to raise awareness of the challenges faced by children with brain conditions. Everyday tasks, activities, interactions and experiences can all present a...
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) – the professional association which works to improve women’s healthcare by publishing clinical guidelines and advising government – has published its report, Each Baby...
The former NHSLA has published its first business plan under its new name, NHS Resolution. The 2017/2018 plan re-launches the Special Health Authority that was formerly responsible for defending and indemnifying legal claims brought against the NHS, as it...
In my last post I commented on the Ministry of Justice’s recent consultation paper, The Personal Injury Discount Rate: How Should It Be Set In Future? I expressed my concerns about the Ministry of Justice’s attempt to circumvent...
On 30 th March 2017, just ten days after the long awaited reduction in the discount rate came into force, the Ministry of Justice has issued a consultation, The Personal Injury Discount Rate: How it should be set in future. The consultation...
The Department of Health has published the outcome of the Consultation, Providing a ‘Safe Space’ in Healthcare Safety Investigations , which it launched in October 2016. The Consultation proposed the creation of a statutory...
Leading disabled people’s charity, Scope, have published their new strategy for the next five years. “Everyday Equality – Scope’s Strategy 2017- 2022” sets out the charity’s vision for a future in which the UK’s...
The Department of Health has issued a consultation paper seeking comments on its suggested alternative compensation scheme for babies who have been brain damaged at birth by poor medical care. The consultation, A Rapid Resolution and Redress Scheme...
The Lord Chancellor recently announced a long-awaited reduction in the discount rate which will affect the way that some compensation awards are calculated. The new discount rate of minus 0.75% replaces the current rate of 2.5%. The change, which follows...
Life is a series of transitions. We go from babyhood to nursery, from primary education to senior school. For some there is another leap to further or higher education before moving out as adults into the world of employment. For most of us the significance...
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published its guideline for the assessment and management of cerebral palsy in children and young people under the age of 25. The guideline aims to ensure that young people with cerebral palsy...
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline, Jaundice in Newborn Babies under 28 days, has recently been amended to clarify the type and extent of phototherapy treatment that should be given to newborn babies with...
The Department of Health is seeking patients’ comments on its proposal to create a statutory “safe space” for NHS clinicians and staff to speak freely during healthcare safety investigations into mistakes and problems in patient care. ...
If you’re considering making a compensation claim for a disabled child you might be wondering how much your child’s claim is worth. When caused by medical negligence, serious neurological injuries such as cerebral palsy , can attract...
Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has invited parents of children who have been injured at birth to speak out about their experiences. Their input will form part of a consultation process leading up to the introduction of a government...
One of the most frequent questions that we’re asked at Boyes Turner is, “My child has cerebral palsy. Can I claim compensation?” Our specialist medical negligence lawyers are experts in obtaining high value damages awards for babies and...
We are proud and excited to announce our partnership with Meningitis Now – a charity dedicated to fighting meningitis in the UK. We have become a Brighter Future Partner and aim to support the charity with their vision of a future where no one in...
Cerebral palsy is the general term for a number of neurological conditions that affect movement and co-ordination. It is caused by a problem in the parts of the brain responsible for controlling muscles and can occur where a brain is damaged before, during...
It’s Group B Strep Awareness month and we’re helping to raise awareness of group B Strep infection. What is Group B Strep? Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is normal bacterium most commonly found in the intestines. It is usually harmless. Why...
One in ten thousand pregnancies in the UK and Ireland results in the death of the mother. Of these 32% were due to complications during pregnancy, such as pre-eclampsia or bleeding, while 68% were due to other medical and mental health...
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is working through it’s “Each Baby Counts” project to try to reduce this number by 50% by 2020. Of the 921 babies whose cases were reported to the project 655 (71%) had...
On March 17 we reported that the National Maternity Review had recommended a scheme be developed whereby the NHS offers financial assistance to the families of babies who are injured by avoidable mistakes during childbirth. The NHS and...
The UK Perinatal Mortality Surveillance Report 2016, published by Maternal, Newborn and Infant Clinical Outcome Review Programme (MBRRACE – UK), monitors rates of still births and neonatal deaths in the UK. This is the second perinatal report...
The National Maternity Review was published in February 2016. One of the recommendations is for a ‘rapid resolution and redress scheme’ for birth injuries. Compensation for birth injuries It is felt that the current system for obtaining...
The Cumberlege report into safer maternity care was published on Tuesday and recommends that all women should be offered the choice to give birth where they want, with the support of the same midwife throughout pregnancy, labour and the early weeks of...
The NHS will today publish a major review into the safety of maternity services. It was commissioned following the scandal at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS trust where, over a decade, up to 30 mothers and babies died following...
The number of compensation claims for cerebral palsy and brain damage sustained at birth has barely changed since 2006/07. Obstetrics claims account for 41 per cent of the value of compensation claims for medical negligence against the NHS. It is not...
A report released earlier this month by MBRRACE-UK: Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK has found that, although there are now fewer pregnancy related deaths, care in respect of women’s mental...
Bliss, the national charity dedicated to the needs of premature and sick children, has received evidence from neonatal units, neonatal transport services and parents across the country about the state of neonatal care in England in 2015. Their findings...
Following on from the Government’s recent ambitious pledge to cut the rate of babies dying and suffering brain injury by 50% by 2030, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has just published a study indicating that there is a 7% increase in babies dying...
An independent review of NHS maternity services in England is taking place this month, with a view to making recommendations for improvements in maternity care provision. The ‘NHS Maternity Review’, being conducted in conjunction with the...
Bliss , the UK charity working to provide the best possible care and support for premature and sick babies and their families, has warned that two thirds of NHS neonatal intensive care units do not have enough nurses and doctors, and a similar number are...
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has reported that three-quarters of NHS hospitals in England are failing to meet high standards of safety. Inspectors rated 13 per cent of hospitals “inadequate” for safety while 61 per cent...
The National Childbirth Trust has issued a warning that at least a dozen midwife-led units are under threat due to a shortage of midwives. This follows an estimate by the Royal College of Midwives that Britain is short of 10,000 midwifery staff, with low...
Save the Children’s annual ‘State of the World’s Mothers’ reports that women in the UK are more than twice as likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth as those in other European countries. Britain failed to rank in...
The Patients Association today releases a damning report into the effectiveness of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The report concludes: ‘The evidence we have gathered gives a public perception of the PHSO as lacklustre, weak,...
In a speech at Birmingham Children’s hospital, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will claim today that Hospitals are wasting up to £2.5bn a year of the total NHS budget through basic poor care and medical error. Hunt will renew his criticism...
Public opinion has hardened against the government’s cuts to legal aid, according to the results of a poll newly published to mark the 65th anniversary of the founding of the legal aid system. Research, funded by the Law Society and carried out...
The long campaign, strongly supported by Boyes Turner, for a statutory duty of candour requiring medical staff to tell the truth when a serious error has been made is soon to come to fruition. The duty will form part of statutory regulations setting out...
Specialist cerebral palsy solicitors, Susan Brown and Vanessa Wand , of Boyes Turner secured a full admission of liability for Nicholas* in a highly complex birth injury case. The injury left Nicholas with bilateral cerebral palsy...
This recent case handed down by Judge Lush on the 20 March 2014 relates to an application for a gift to be made from the damages award of an 11 year old boy known as AK. AK has cerebral palsy as a result of injuries sustained at the time of his...
Specialist cerebral palsy solicitor Susan Brown of Boyes Turner secured a settlement at 50% of the liability case for Sophie* in a highly complex birth injury case. The injury left Sophie with severe full body cerebral palsy. The injury was...
The conclusions of a report by the president of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) and an NHS trust chief executive will put pressure on the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to agree to a full ‘duty of candour’ , which patients’...
A damning report on maternity care by the Public Accounts Committee suggests that women are being failed by NHS maternity services with more than 14 babies a day in England either stillborn or dying within seven days of their birth. It said there were...
Boyes Turner’s specialist cerebral palsy solicitors secured a settlement for approximately £3 million after a highly complex birth injury case. Zac suffered a brain injury at the time of his birth in 2005, and suffers...
A Care Quality Commission survey of 23,000 women who gave birth in England in February revealed significant dissatisfaction, and sometimes anger and anguish. One in four said they were left alone by midwives or doctors during or after labour or...
Yesterday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, a high court Judge, approved the settlement in a very complex cerebral palsy claim , handled by Boyes Turner, for a child with profound disabilities caused by injuries...
Specialist cerebral palsy solicitor Susan Brown of Boyes Turner secured a settlement of £1.3m for Malcolm after highly complex birth injuries were sustained. The injury left Malcolm with moderate dyskinetic cerebral...
Specialist cerebral palsy solicitor, Susan Brown of Boyes Turner, secured a £7m settlement for Jennifer* after a highly complex birth injury case. The injury left Jennifer with dyskinetic cerebral palsy which affected all of her...
Boyes Turner secured a 57.5% liability settlement in favour of 23 year old, Joanne* who developed a severe brain injury after a delay in diagnosis and treatment of meningitis in February 1990. Joanne has been diagnosed with cerebral...
Boyes Turner’s Cerebral Palsy compensation team secured a settlement for approximately £3 million for Jessica * after a highly complex birth injury case. The injury left Jessica with athetoid cerebral palsy caused...
In the UK, educational support for special educational needs (SEN) children is supposed to be woven into mainstream health and education provision. However, integration of care is not aided by the historic divide that has always existed in caring between...
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the NHS care watchdog, has uncovered “a catalogue of failings” at Barts Health NHS Trust including uncaring staff, blood-stained equipment, poor hygiene standards, patients not being helped to eat and a...
Jonathan’s* mother was induced on 19 April at the defendant hospital, following which her labour progressed slowly. Intermittent heart monitoring was undertaken for the next couple of days. On the morning of 22 April Jonathan’s heart rate became...
The BBC recently ran a report outlining some research that was published in the British Medical Journal recently which related to a study in the Netherlands that concluded that, particularly for second time mums, a planned home birth is...
The Government are bringing in a Care and Support Bill to decide what public services to support in a Spending Review on 26th June. Over 100,000 people may miss out on help with these basic needs if proposed spending cuts are put into place. ...
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has produced a report which highlights a considerable variation in practice and outcomes amongst maternity units in England. It lists a number of indicators which can be used to compare the performance...
Law firm – Boyes Turner is pleased to announce the launch of three YouTube videos featuring their client, Alexander, who suffered cerebral palsy due to medical negligence during his birth, along with his mother and father. Alexander is...