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£180m negligence payouts in 3 years
Anna Davis30 Oct 2008
THE true scale of compensation payments to London NHS patients emerged today.
The NHS has paid out more than £180 million on claims for clinical negligence over the past three years and the total figure will be much higher because legal fees are not included in the calculations.
The amount handed to patients was about £56 million in 2005/06, fell slightly last year to £51 million, but then shot up to £73 million this year. The figures relate to when claims were settled, not when negligence occured.
They were obtained in an answer to a Parliamentary question by Lee Scott, MP for Ilford North. He said: "It is a disgraceful amount of money. I am sure doctors and nurses are doing a good job, but something, somewhere is going wrong.
"All constituents I deal with who are seeking compensation have perfectly valid cases nobody seems to be playing the system. I want a full investigation to find out the causes behind this rise."
Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust, which includes St Mary's, Hammersmith and Charing Cross hospitals, paid out more than £11 million in the past year the most in London.
A spokeswoman said the figure was so high because the trust was the biggest in the country. "Patient safety is paramount. We have the second best mortality rate in the country," she added.
The Health Department said: "The NHS sees a million people every 36 hours. The vast majority receive safe care."
Compensation is paid to patients through the NHS Litigation Authority. Its chief, Steve Walker, said: "The number of people making claims has remained fairly static. The amount of money has gone up because judicial inflation is much higher than normal inflation." He said most cash went towards the anticipated cost of wages for staff who would be looking after patients for the rest of their lives.
He added: "Figures can also be massively distorted by two or three very high-value claims. These are often settled many years after the event, and they even out over time. People talk about compensation culture but that doesn't exist in the NHS. We do not see fraudulent claims."
Earlier this year actress Leslie Ash received a record £5 million after nearly dying of MRSA contracted at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Last year Debra Luck, 44, of Waltham Abbey got £200,000 and her nine-year-old son Ben £25,000 after the boy's father Ian, 37, died at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow. He suffered a heart attack after a duodenal ulcer ruptured but experts said surgery would have saved him.
