In its ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court allowed a clinical negligence claim for ‘lost years' damages against Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHSFT.

The claimant suffered a severe brain injury as a consequence of hypoxia during her birth in 2015 and has been entirely dependent on others since the time of her birth with no prospect of improvement. Her life expectancy is agreed to be 29.

Kennedys Law LLP said: ‘There is no doubt this judgment will have a significant financial impact on insurers managing catastrophic injury claims involving children. Of greater impact will be on NHS Resolution who manage birth injury related claims in the NHS.' 

An NHS Resolution spokesperson said: ‘The Supreme Court has handed down its judgment in the case of CCC v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHSFT. The court's judgment has provided important clarification about the law around compensation for "lost years" in clinical negligence cases, and how such losses are to be calculated. We will carefully consider the ruling and its implications for our work in compensation claims which involve the NHS.'

Jane McNicholas, chief medical officer, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHSFT, said: ‘Following the birth of this child in 2015 we carried out a full review of what happened and there were clearly aspects of the care which should have been done differently, and we are so very sorry that this happened.

‘We apologised unreservedly to the family and have made significant changes since then to how we monitor women in labour in line with NICE guidance and NHS Resolution maternity standards. We now also have annual foetal monitoring training in place for all our midwives and medical staff which is informed by national and local learning and guidance.'