BBC Panorama will tonight run a program called "One Born Every 40 Seconds” which will report on the standards of care being provided in maternity units across the country but specifically in London.

In 2009-2010 there were 42 maternal deaths in the London area alone, which the Telegraph reports is more than one and a half times the expected number. As a result of these deaths a report was commissioned by NHS London, the strategic health authority. The report concluded that 17 of these 42 deaths were preventable. The reasons being given for these deaths is that there is an increased pressure on maternity units in the London area due to the raising birth rate and the general lack of midwifes. Cathy Warwick general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "The most critical issue facing maternity services is that they are desperately short of midwives.”

When I am asked why it is that I do clinical negligence work it is reasons exactly like this that I cite. It is devastating when something goes wrong during child birth (or any other medical procedure) I can't imagine how the surviving family must feel when a mother dies giving birth. Child birth does carry a number of known risks associated with things like the age and the health of the mother and in most cases, sadly, the deaths cannot be avoided. However, when you hear that some of the deaths were entirely avoidable and caused by the patients receiving less than optimum care it reminds me why this type of work is so important.

By bringing a clinical negligence claim it highlights to the Hospitals what areas of care they can improve. I have heard many times from clients that the thing they are most concerned about is making sure that what has happened to them and their family will never happen to anyone else. Whilst it is true that with a clinical negligence claim we are only able to seek damages from the Defendant, I believe that just by bringing the claim the Hospitals Trusts are forced to look into any areas of care that they could improve upon and therefore improving the service that they provide.

The thing I find most shocking about the results of this report is that the hospitals' own internal investigations into the deaths were not always accurate or objective. Out of 29 reports looked at, the panel of investigators only agreed with the findings of 12 of them. The BBC reports that, 6 of these reports concluded that the deaths were unavoidable but the panel considered that "different management and earlier diagnosis could have changed the outcome.” Surely it would be more conducive to good health care if we had an open and honest system when something goes wrong. I would have thought that if the hospitals were to go to the time and expense of investigating a case that they do it as accurately as possible to try and make the care they provide better.

The panel of investigators also commented that some of the hospitals own internal investigations were "defensive in nature”. I am sure that everyone appreciates that healthcare is a high pressure and risky business and sometimes things do go wrong. However, I can see no reason why healthcare professionals should be allowed to be anything by honest and open about what has gone wrong. This would help the patient and the family to cope in a very difficult situation. AVMA, the charity for action against medical accidents has been campaigning for sometime for a legal Duty of Candour for all healthcare professionals. This means that if something goes wrong then the medical professional is under a duty to be open and honest about the treatment they have provided and what, if anything, has gone wrong. If this is ever achieved it would hopefully eliminate some of the problems highlighted in this particular report.

At JMW we often deal with clinical negligence enquires made by the patients or their families that have been affected by similar situations.  I can only hope that reports such as these will highlight to the Hospital Trusts the areas that they need to focus on and go someway to helping towards providing better heath care for everyone.