A BOLTON midwife's negligent advice during a two-minute telephone call left a baby boy severely disabled for life and will cost the NHS millions.

The 19-year-old mother had woken in the early hours after her waters broke and painful contractions started, the High Court heard.

But when she spoke to a midwife at Royal Bolton Hospital she was told to hang on "a bit longer" and "positively discouraged" from coming in.

By the time she arrived at the hospital it was too late to carry out a caesarean section and the baby was upside down in the womb and was starved of oxygen during his traumatic delivery in 2008.

He suffered a total circulatory collapse for about 27 minutes before he was resuscitated.

And the result was severe brain damage that left the now nine-year-old gravely disabled and in need of care for life.

Today, judge Mr Justice King ruled Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, now known as Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, fully liable to compensate the boy.

Had the mother arrived at the hospital just minutes earlier, the option of a caesarean would have remained open and the boy would probably have been born uninjured, he added.

The judge said: "I am satisfied that ...the advice which was given, which was that the mother should not come in, with a positive discouragement from coming in, fell below any acceptable standard of competent care."

He ruled that the mother "should have been issued at the very least with an invitation to come into the hospital to be assessed and checked out when she was ready to do so.

"The advice given was below the standard of any reasonable responsible midwife".

After the call with the midwife the mother waited for about 40 minutes before her father made another desperate call to the hospital.

By then, the teenager was in too much pain to speak to a midwife herself and her father said he was bringing her in immediately.

Mr King said the midwife, who has not been identified, should at least have "invited" the teenager to go to hospital during the first phone call.

Instead, during the call that lasted two minutes and 11 seconds, the midwife effectively told her "do not come in".

The expectant mum was told to wait a bit longer, despite telling the midwife that her waters had broken.

The amount of the boy's compensation has yet to be assessed but, due to the extent of his disabilities, it is believed to be a seven-figure sum.

The trust said it noted and is considering the judgment in this matter but had no comment to make at this time.