An NHS trust has said lessons will be learnt after more than a dozen babies were stillborn due to negligence.

A Freedom of Information request by law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter found that, between 2010/11 and 2020/21, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which operates the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, settled 13 clinical negligence claims relating to stillbirths.

The trust paid out £517,908 in damages and £745,754 in legal costs relating to the claims over the ten-year period.

Emma Chambers, director of midwifery at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust “fully investigates” such incidents to ensure lessons are learnt to improve care.

She said: “We offer our heartfelt sympathy to all families who have experienced such a devastating loss.

“Our duty is always to support families through such a desperately difficult time, as well as to fully investigate all such incidents, however rare, to ensure we learn from any tragic death and focus on improving the quality of care that we provide for birthing parents and babies in the future.”

Melanie Winter, head of clinical negligence at Mayo Wynne Baxter, said that in England, more than one baby is at risk of being stillborn due to negligence each week.

She said: “Failures in care are being repeated because lessons are not learned. There has to be change and there has to be candour when mistakes are made.

“Our NHS is fantastic. While the first duty of a healthcare system is to do no harm, sometimes things do go wrong and care falls below medical standards.

“Clinical negligence claims play a critical role in safeguarding patients against negligent treatment.

“In all my cases, clients are predominantly seeking to establish the truth, an apology and to ensure healthcare professionals learn from their own tragic experiences to prevent them from making the same mistakes in the future.

“Suffering a stillbirth is extremely traumatic and while no amount of compensation can change the pain negligence causes, one of the key reasons parents decide to make a claim is to ensure they do not suffer financially.”