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As someone who takes a keen professional as well as naturally human interest in the state of UK hospitals and maternity services, I am well aware how endemic overstretching of staff and resources can sometimes be a factor in creating the kinds of substandard care associated with medical negligence claims.
Though fortunately, up until recently, because of the ruddy health enjoyed by immediate friends and family, I've had little firsthand experience of UK hospitals.
All this changed in 2006 when my long-suffering wife of five years fell pregnant for the first time.
However much the spectre of the potential for the kinds of care and conditions associated with medical negligence claims sat quietly at the backs of both mine and my wife's minds, we felt genuinely optimistic about the prospect of the antenatal care my wife and our unborn child would receive.
It must be said that, for the most part, our optimism was rewarded by competent and engaging care. However, there were certain aspects of the care my wife received which I felt hinted at the kind of culture and infrastructure that makes medical negligence claims an all too distressing reality for a small proportion of Britain's population.
The first two trimesters of Beryl's pregnancy were spent in busy London while the third was spent in the rather more calming dales of the Cumbria countryside, where we stayed in my parent's farmhouse.
It saddens me to say that while we were in London, aside from the excellent care of a few individuals, the hospital and GP surgery who oversaw the early months of Beryl's pregnancy both had something of the air of a weary production-line.
While on a professional level, the doctor who informed my wife she was pregnant did nothing wrong; Beryl felt that on a personal level he failed to engage with her, was completely impassive and offered no help and reassurance.
Not good-old fashioned doctor to patient care then, but nothing to suggest he is at any time likely to be the subject of a medical negligence claim.
It was at the hospital, though, that things took a turn for the worse. When I accompanied my wife on her routine check-ups and scans we were usually made to wait several hours beyond the time of the scheduled appointment.
And when she did have her check-ups and scans, though they were performed by clearly caring and professional staff, time constraints meant that the several hours of waiting were usually followed by a perfunctory and hurried seeming consultation.
The single most frightening thing, for me, which occurred at this hospital, was an occasion when Beryl called me there because she was experiencing some unexplained spotting (light bleeding).
I went to the antenatal care unit she had told me she was in and asked the staff at the helpdesk where I might find her. They had absolutely no knowledge of her existence, so went to enquire.
The answer they came back with left me terrified, "She's in postnatal".
Postnatal, as any parent will know, means after birth', and as my wife was only 21-weeks pregnant at the time (a foetus is not considered viable at this stage), I can now forgive myself for fearing the worst.
In a state of high disorientation and anxiety, I made my way to the postnatal ward. When I got there, the staff, again, did not know where Beryl was.
After a while of waiting, one of the nurses made a telephone call. "I think she must be stuck in the lifts," she told me.
After a further ten minutes or so of waiting with still no one able to tell me what had happened, I witnessed a scene which might explain how, even with highly-trained staff and the most advanced equipment, a flagship hospital like the one which was treating Beryl can still become the subject of medical negligence claims.
With visions of my traumatised and possibly seriously-ill wife stuck in a malfunctioning lift, I listened dizzily and with a sick stomach as I heard the administrative nurses curse the incompetence of the midwives and the aloofness of the doctors.
It does not bode well for medical negligence claims when hospital ranks can be so openly divided.
Fortunately, I was soon informed that my wife hadn't given birth and, instead, had only been sent to the wrong ward a couple of times.
When I finally saw her, she said, much to my relief that she was fine and would probably be free to leave soon.
"The nurses here haven't exactly made me feel confident though, they kept complaining that the administration here are hopeless and don't know a thing."
One major relief about moving to Cumbria for Beryl's third trimester was that, though they didn't have the same whiz-bang technology, the hospital where Beryl gave birth seemed to have time to offer a really personalised and caring maternity service.
Unfortunately, in something that may or may not lead to an increase in medical negligence claims, many of these smaller regional hospitals are now closing under the directives of a Labour government scheme.
As for that flagship London hospital, I am only glad Beryl was lucky enough to find a better maternity care than that which they offered.
Around the same time she gave birth, a major story hit the news detailing how one couple, not being so lucky, had been forced to employ a personal injury solicitor after the medical negligence they experienced from the same hospital ended in them needing to make a birth injury compensation claim.
All of which makes me feel very lucky indeed to have beautiful twin girls who are thriving happily.
Giggling, dribbling, screaming and soon to be crawling, I know when to count my blessings.
