Shock as health trusts pay out £94m medical negligence bill

THE bill for ongoing medical negligence cases hit £94m in the last financial year, government statistics reveal.

Health trusts paid out £70m for damages and £24m in legal costs. The report revealed £28.5m was paid out for cases closed during the past financial year, a decrease on previous years.

Obstetrics — care related to pregnancy, child birth, after birth care and gynaecology — accounted for over half (£53m) of the amount paid out.

In the year from March 2016, health officials across Northern Ireland worked through 3,647 cases of alleged negligence.

Of those, 667 were new cases reported that year, 246 cases were settled and 632 closed. Some 436 cases were closed without payment.

Around 40% of all cases involved the Belfast Health Trust which the figures show paid out £32m for the year, a third of the total so far. For completed cases it paid out £10m.

Medical negligence is defined as a breach of duty of care by members of the health trusts during the course of their employment which is either admitted or determined through a legal process.

From the cases opened in the past year, a minority were of incidents which happened before 1993 while the majority were of alleged negligence that was said to have happened between 2011 and 2014. A quarter of all cases concern patients aged between 19 and 34.

On average, the report said it took2.6yearstocompleteacase.

At times, trusts are ordered to make a payment during the course of proceedings in order to meet the immediate needs of the claimant.

This totalled almost £50m last year with 26 orders made.

DUP MLA Paula Bradley, who worked as a social worker for 12 years, said mistakes were “inevitable” but there was a “blame culture” among the public.

“People have that right and so long as their complaint is genuine, they should,” she said.

“This£94misphenomenal.It is money that could be spent on so many vital services. As long as the trusts are learning from each individual mistake, that is the important thing.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said the £94.1m figures referred to the amount which has been paid on each case, during the length of time that it has been open.

It includes the money spent on cases that may have been open for a number of years, as payments are made at different times whilst it continues.

It said the £28.5m paid out in 2016/17 is the amount paid out solely in a financial year.