NEARLY £3 million in claims for injuries sustained in maternity care at the trust that runs south Cumbria's hospital have been made in the last ten years.

Around £2.6 million worth of negligence claims have been submitted - including for deaths.

More than £1 million of the total claims was covered by three claims for cerebral palsy while around £500,000 in claims were made for four deaths.

Claims were also made for brain damage, stillborn babies and unnecessary pain.

The figures were released in a report to the Morecambe Bay Hospital Trust board of directors and cover the period from 2012 to 2021.

The average maternity claim over the time period was worth £77,028.

Explaining how the negligence claims are paid, the report said: "The total costs of the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) scheme are met by membership contributions.

"The projected claim costs are assessed in advance each year by professional actuaries. Individual member contribution levels are influenced by a range of factors, including the type of trust, the specialties it provides and the number of 'whole time equivalent' clinical staff it employs.

"Claims history is also taken into account, meaning that members with fewer, less costly claims pay less in contributions."

The report also noted there had been 28 incidents in the last 12 months.

"A thematic review has been undertaken to ascertain themes and trends," it said.

"The top 3 contributory factors where different care might have made a difference to the outcome are: education, training, risk recognition and team communication.

"There was a noticeable theme with areas of non-compliance with the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle with fetal growth surveillance, fetal monitoring in the antenatal period and preterm birth.

"A range of improvement workstreams are in place to assist in the areas identified as needing improvement, however, there is further work to undertake around fetal surveillance and fetal monitoring and ensuring that the training offer is in alignment with the new maternity core competency training framework.

"Business cases have been developed."