NHS medical blunders dating back more than two decades are still costing millions of pounds a year in compensation, it has emerged.

The negligence bill for mistakes made before 1995 – mainly maternity failings – has begun to rise for the first time in five years.

A patients’ charity said the figures showed just how long some families have to wait for payouts.

The NHS said it had taken steps to speed up the process.

The NHS in England has a separate Government-funded scheme to deal with negligence claims for events before April 1995.

Its payouts rose by 13 per cent last year to £27.7m, the BBC’s analysis of official data shows. It is thought increased life expectancy and rising care costs may be behind the rise.

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Patients’ charity Action Against Medical Accidents said the growing size of the historical bill demonstrated the tragic, long-term human cost of often basic maternity errors.

Chief executive Peter Walsh said: “We, as a charity, have been going for 35 years and we still see the same mistakes, the same avoidable errors causing injury now as we did 35 years ago.”

Mr Walsh called for more consistency in NHS training for midwives and doctors, saying examples of good practice seen in some hospitals should be rolled out across the country.