An Aliwal North woman has secured a R15m settlement from the Eastern Cape health department after the negligence of staff at two hospitals led to her baby being born with cerebral palsy.

Expert medical opinion sought by the health department when its lawyers were assessing whether to defend the claim concluded “it might be very difficult to defend this case” because of the “obvious substandard care” of not properly monitoring the foetus using a cardiotocography (CTG) test...