19.12.14
Legal claims against NHS nearly doubles in four years
The number of claims clinical negligence cases against the NHS has nearly doubled in four years, and almost half are settled with a damages award in the client’s favour, according to information published by the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA).
Correspondingly the money allocated to the NHSLA by the government for the settling of medical negligence compensation claims has also nearly doubled, currently standing at £15.6bn for 2013-14 compared to £8.7bn in 2010.
Figures show 11,945 cases were registered against NHS trusts during 2013-14. During the previous year it was 10,129 new claims. This is a leap from 6,562 during the 2009-10 period. The total number of claims that were still active at the end of March 2014 was 28,029.
The body within the NHSLA that deals with such claims is the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts, which settles each claim in an average of 1.26 years from the start date that the NHSLA is made aware of the claim, to the payment of any compensation.
In a speech in Birmingham in October, health secretary Jeremy Hunt discussed the research by Frontier Economics into the costs of poor care, saying: “They estimate that it could be costing the NHS up to £2.5bn every year. And they highlight some of the shocking costs of poor care – from the £1.3bn spent every year on litigation costs, to the cost of not ‘getting it right first time’ in orthopaedic care - which Professor Tim Briggs’s excellent work shows could save between £200-300m every year.”
Shadow health minister Jamie Reed MP said: “These figures provide indisputable proof that the NHS is heading seriously downhill.
“The sad truth is that, by turning the NHS upside down with a damaging reorganisation and causing a crisis in A&E, this government has made care problems more likely, not less.”
Claims relating to maternity, such as birthing injuries, are the third most common type of clinical negligence claim, but cost the NHS the most in terms of damages, as children suffering with the likes of cerebral palsy need for lifelong care plus an adapted home complete with special equipment.
Dame Barbara Hakin, National Director of Commissioning Operations for NHS England said that the NHS is both under pressure and having to provide care to a higher number of patients than in its entire history. By December 2013, 7,060 clinical staff redundancies had been made under the current government.
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