The NHS could be facing a £27.4bn bill for maternity failings in England, an NHS annual report has revealed.
It comes after several hospital scandals caused hundreds of babies and women to die or suffer life-altering conditions sparking a record number of legal claims.
The potential bill for maternity negligence since 2019 is £27.4bn, according to an NHS Resolution report, the organisation that handles negligence claims for the NHS trusts in England.
Hospital scandals in England have prompted health secretary Wes Streeting to launch a national investigation into NHS maternity services.
The new rapid investigation will look at “systemic” failures in maternity and neo-natal units “up and down the country”, which are leaving women and babies at a “considerably higher” risk than they should be.
The probe will focus on the 10 “worst performing” maternity services in England in a bid to drive urgent improvements to safety for pregnant women and their babies, Mr Streeting said.
The NHS Resolution report which was published on Thursday revealed in 2024/25 the NHS paid out £3.1bn in compensation and associated costs overall.
But because claims take some time to be reported and settled, and some claims are settled with multi-year payments into the future as Periodical Payment Orders (PPOs), the estimated “annual cost of harm” for NHS schemes was £4.9 billion.
This means almost £5 billion in compensation costs is currently incurred by the NHS in England each year for incidents that could be avoided.
The estimates cost of harm from maternity incidents in 2019/20 was £5.7bn, £5.1bn in 2020/21, £8.2bn in 2021/22, £3.4 in 2022/23 and £2.5bn in both 2023/24 and 4024/25, the Guardian reported.
This estimated cost is far higher than the NHS budget of £18bn for newborns over the past six years.
Jeremy Hunt, the former Conservative health secretary, told the Guardian: “It should be a matter of national shame that we now spend more on maternity litigation than the total cost of running maternity services.”
However, compensation for maternity negligence only accounts for a fraction of the total £27.4bn sum, with a large share going towards legal costs.
Over the past six years £24.6m has been spent on legal fees for claims that did not result in damages.
Liberal Democrat hospitals spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller said these figures show how much damage the crisis in maternity services is causing the NHS.
She told the newspaper: “The crisis in our maternity services is being laid bare through the trauma that so many families have to deal with.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited an unacceptable situation where too many families have suffered due to failures in maternity care and the NHS has been paying billions for its mistakes, rather than fixing them.
“We are committed to breaking that cycle and providing mothers and babies with safe, compassionate care once and for all. That is why we have announced a rapid national maternity investigation to identify where things are going wrong and identify solutions.”
A spokesperson also said it is setting up a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, rolling out a digital system to better identify safety concerns, and a new training programme to help prevent avoidable injuries at childbirth.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “We recognise that too many women and families are not receiving the high-quality maternity care they deserve, and we are committed to changing this.
“We are taking immediate steps to strengthen maternity services, including closer oversight of underperforming trusts, and will work with the independent investigation to ensure we learn from its findings and deliver the comprehensive changes that women and families need and deserve.”
NHS Resolution said: “The high cost of compensation arising in maternity comes from a small number of very serious incidents resulting in brain injury to a baby at birth. These incidents are devastating for families and reflect the need to make provision for life-long and complex care needs.
“NHS Resolution is committed to supporting the Government’s action to drive improvements in maternal and neonatal safety.
“Our Early Notification Scheme enables an earlier investigation of compensation entitlement than has been possible in the past and for learning to be shared back more rapidly with NHS trusts. Additionally, our Maternity Incentive Scheme provides financial incentives to NHS trusts to embed safety standards. We continue to evaluate and enhance these programmes to improve outcomes for families and reduce preventable harm.”
