Compensation claims arising from negligence within the NHS have gone up in London, with some hospital trusts having to pay more than double the amount in damages than the year before.
The latest set of statistics show that medical negligence compensation payouts from the NHS have risen. In London alone, figures from the NHS Litigation Authority have shown that, the total paid in damages to patients in the last financial year was £172 million (which equates to £470,000 per day). With some sources claiming this may be closer to £200 million when court and legal fees are taken into account.
At £89 million, over half of all medical negligence claims have been for mistakes taking place on maternity units, an area the NHS have admitted are overstretched. Obstetrics claims included cases where correct procedures had not been followed resulted in babies ending up severely disabled at birth. Other cases include those in which patients have died due to avoidable errors, as well as people being left disabled and serious illnesses not being diagnosed.
The figures relate to 41 trusts in London including Barts Health NHS Trust, South London Healthcare NHS Trust, Barking Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and North West London Hospitals NHS Trust. Ormond Street almost doubled their payouts at £3.3 million, up from £1.7 million and at £24.4 million, Barts paid the most of any trust in the country.
A spokeswoman for Barts Health explained that they deal with some of the “most complicated clinical conditions in the UK” and that “both the number and complexity of the cases we treat is reflected proportionately in the amount paid out on our behalf by the NHS Litigation Authority”.
These figures raise serious questions over the standard of care within the NHS, with many people blaming the growing number of NHS negligence cases on severe budget cuts which have resulted in staff shortages and an increased strain on NHS staff’s daily schedules. It could be argued that the budget cuts are actually costing more than they are saving, and that an increase in staff spending could reduce the number of medical negligence compensation claims. Resulting in not only lower payouts but, more importantly, in fewer mistakes being made.
While, as always, some may argue that a rise in these type of figures are a result of the ever increasing compensation culture and ambulance chasing lawyers, Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee puts some of the blame on the poor quality of the NHS and the care it provides.
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