The NHS paid out a record £2.87 billion in compensation and legal costs over the past year for alleged wrongdoing by medical professionals.
Half of that amount was related to claims for poor maternity care, figures show in the annual report of the Institute for Legal Rights for Health Care.
NHS Resolution’s report showed that the “annual cost of damages” – the value of reported claims plus an estimate of expected future claims arising from events in the past financial year – was £4.7bn for clinical negligence.
The law firm said it was “money that could be spent on improving health care for the future.”
Its report, published last week, stated the total value of damages and legal costs In general – and especially for those severely damaged – the upward trend continued. However, it noted that there were “some welcome positive signs” and cited a reduction in damage inflation that has reduced overall provisions for clinical negligence.
There was a 2.5 per cent increase in clinical negligence claims brought against NHS trusts last year to 10,834.
The report shows an increase of more than 9 percent to 2,382 claims resulting from general use.
Just over 80 percent of disputes were resolved without litigation, the highest level ever, and only 50 cases went to trial, the report said. Of those, 17 resulted in an award of damages, compared with 19 damages awarded in 60 trials the previous year.
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“We recognize that this upward trend cannot continue indefinitely,” the report’s authors said, adding that the organization “will continue to promote dispute resolution in cases.”
Focusing on several recent care abuses in ante- and postnatal care, including high-profile cases at Nottingham University Hospitals and East Kent Hospitals, the report described collaboration “to improve maternal outcomes” as a strategic priority.
Allegations of negligence in obstetrics accounted for 13 per cent of clinical claims not related to general practice, accounting for 57 per cent of the total value of NHS payments, the report said.
However, that figure was down from 64 percent the previous year, a drop attributed to “early notification” of birth injuries.
The scheme, the body said, “has helped families get compensation for immediate needs more quickly”. It concluded that “assessment of lifelong care needs for seriously harmed children in these cases may take longer than other claims due to the need to reach developmental milestones before these can be assessed”.
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The report noted that, for the first time, attorneys’ costs for claimants for low-value allegations of clinical negligence exceeded damages.
In claims worth up to £25,000, average legal costs have been shown to rise steadily over the past decade, from £19,776 to £26,095 in the 12 months to last March.
It was 7 percent higher than the previous year’s figure and 32 percent higher for 2014-15.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The NHS is broken and fixing it is our priority. We recognize the need for significant improvement in patient safety. That is why on Friday we took four immediate steps to make the Care Quality Commission fit for purpose.
“We will build on NHS Resolution’s three-year strategy, which focuses on prevention, learning and early intervention. In addition, we will train thousands more midwives and ensure that failing trusts in maternity care are strongly supported to rapidly improve, to help reduce errors and harm.
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