Posts Tagged ‘nhs litigation costs’

Nhs Litigation Costs

nhs litigation costs

Nhs Pays Out 3.14M In Compensation

It has been revealed that Pennie Acute Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, has had to pay out the third highest amount of compensation claims in Great Britain. The trust regulates hospitals in Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and North Manchester, but this vast business growth did not stop them from having to shell out £3.14 million in medical negligence claims during 2008-09. An investigation further found the true extent of blunders in the hospital – with one in four NHS trusts paying more to injury lawyers than patients. In 2008-09, a total of £2,085,294 was forked out in damages by Pennine Acute for 10 cases involving departments such as cardiology and paediatrics. Claimant costs totalled £794, 875 and defence costs were £403,984. Steve Walker, chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority, which manages all compensation claims, said the authority collects yearly contributions from every trust depending on what they think will be spent that year. He stated: “If in any particular year for any particular trust we spend, for example, £50 million. That doesn’t mean that they have been particularly negligent. The claims we settle in any year may relate to events in previous years, up to 15 or even 20 years before.” NHS wealth pulse weak Shockingly, overall the NHS paid out almost £11 million for cases of clinical negligence involving hospitals across the region in just one year. £9.97 million was given to compensation cases the year before. All compensation is dealt with by a national body, the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), and nationally £870 million was shelled out last year compared with £661 million in 2007/8. It is thought that the financial downturn has contributed to the rise in cases. The amounts include legal costs incurred on both sides where these are paid by the NHS and damages paid to claimants, which are mostly patients and members of the public. Ruth Jameson, medical director at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, stated: “As the largest NHS trust in the North-West and one of the largest in England we run five hospitals, employ around 10,000 staff and serve a population of 800,000 people. “We spend over half a billion pounds a year on providing quality healthcare services and have the most accident and emergency attendances nationally and in 2007/08 we delivered the most births nationally across our hospitals. “Larger trusts who serve a larger population are clearly more likely to receive compensation claims than smaller trusts or those providing low-risk care. Our priority is to provide the very best care for each patient on every occasion. “The vast majority of the thousands of patients that we treat and care for every day receive and experience a good quality, safe and effective healthcare service.”