NHS pays out £18m after hospital blunders (From The Argus)
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Sussex hospitals £18m hospital blunders bill
6:20pm Friday 10th February 2012 in News By Siobhan Ryan, Health Reporter
The NHS paid out almost £18 million in compensation claims made against Sussex hospitals last year.
Money awarded as result of medical blunders rose by around half from the £12.3 million paid out a year earlier.
The rise has sparked concerns about a growing compensation culture with more people ready to take legal action than a decade ago.
However, hospital bosses and legal firms say the rise in payouts does not always mean a rise in claims. Some cases can take several years to go through the legal process.
All compensation is dealt with by a national body, the NHS Litigation Authority.
The amount paid by the NHS Litigation Authority following claims against Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust reached £7.3 million.
This includes damages paid to claimants, patients, staff and members of the public and the legal costs incurred.
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust payouts reached £7.9 million and the amount for Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust was £2.8 million.
A spokesman for the Patient Action Group in Sussex said: “I agree that people should receive compensation for serious injuries and long-term medical problems that have been caused by mistakes in hospitals.
"However, it feels like we are seeing more and more cases with people all too ready to take legal action for things that may be less serious. In the end it is the taxpayer who is paying for it.”
Robert Bell, a specialist in clinical negligence at Mayo Wynne Baxter in Brighton, said: “If you look back over the last ten years the number of people calling for compensation has been more or less constant.
“People tend to make a claim after they have had time to think about it."
A spokeswoman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals said: “Our trust is committed to providing the best and safest care for all our patients and fully investigates any incident that gives rise to a complaint or legal claim.”
Comments(2)
moronslayer
says...
8:40am Sat 11 Feb 12
1. Risky but life-saving procedures will be dropped (as too expensive) - it costs far less to tell people there is nothing that can be done and that they should simply prepare for death, when active treatment would be available elsewhere in Europe.
2. The level of weasel-speak and, quite frankly, dishonesty will increase manyfold in the organisations running hospitals, e.g., medical records will be 'lost' when problems arise. Patients will sign even more disclaimers that they don't understand etc.
Private medical staff will be warned that defensive medicine (aka cover one's own a rse medicine) is the only acceptable approach to dealing with patients.
The only parts of the NHS that will remain are those that are required by Cameron's mates to blame and off-load genuinely sick people onto - a few intensive care units that, ehh, aren't properly resourced to provide genuine intensive care.
Private medical services are already massively subsidised by the tax payer - any payouts for mistakes are dwarfed in comparison with the kind of money leached out of the NHS prior to it's demise.
The Heretic says...
7:12pm Fri 10 Feb 12
Unfortunately, all too frequently where less serious (but still important) issues arise, the only way to get any sort of admission of error, let alone the courtesy of a simple apology, is via legal action, and when this occurs, the only real winners are the legal profession. The losers are the taxpayers.
I've known of several cases brought to court when in fact all the litigant wanted was acknowledgement of an error, an apology and an indication of what was to be done to prevent recurrance. When entrenched litigious thinking prevents common sense prevailing, the result to the NHS is corrosive, undermining faith in what is still a world class health service. That may suit the money in private medicine, but for the vast majority of us would be a disaster.