Medical negligence cases cost the State record €285million
One quarter of all payouts in 2017 went to lawyers
Claims will stretch to tens of millions Cases are bonanza for lawyers
MEDICAL negligence cases cost the State Claims Agency (SCA) a record €285million last year – including €48.2million on lawyers for those taking the cases and €23million on the State’s own lawyers.
A quarter (€71.2million) of all payouts went to lawyers in 2017, while medical experts cost the State €6.2million – leaving €207.82m paid out in damages to those suing the healthcare system.
The role of the SCA is currently under the spotlight as a result of the High Court action taken by terminally ill Co. Limerick woman Vicky Phelan against the HSE and a US lab. The SCA fought the case for the HSE before it was eventually settled.
The soaring cost of dealing with medical negligence cases over the past five years has helped push the bill at the SCA across all State departments to over €1.68billion since its inception in 2001.
New figures provided by the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, show that the SCA has paid out an average of over €96million a year – in damages, legal bills and expert costs.
The bigger driver of the SCA’s costs are medical negligence cases, with the bill last year for dealing with such matters reaching a record figure of more than €285million.
The figures – provided in two separate written Dáil replies to Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall – show that over the past five years, the expense of dealing with medical negligence cases has more than doubled.
Costs have gone from €127.2million in 2013 to the total of more than €285million in 2017 – a rise of 124%.
That figure is likely to soar this year as the State has agreed not to contest numerous claims by women who contracted cervical cancer after smear tests failed to detect any abnormalities. Those claims will likely stretch into many tens of millions.
Medical lawsuits also cost €233.1million in 2016 and €210million in 2015.
The largest rise in recent years took place in 2015, when claims increased by 76% on the €119.7million paid out in 2014.
According to the SCA figures, €948million has been paid out in damages in clinical negligence cases since 2001.
The cases have provided a bonanza for lawyers; since 2001, those representing people taking claims have received €229.7million in fees, while lawyers representing the SCA have received €141.68million.
The cost to the State for such claims is expected to increase dramatically in the wake of the cervical cancer scandal.
The Government has agreed a comprehensive package of health measures to support the 209 women who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer and whose recent cancer audit result differed from their original smear test.
It also announced that the SCA is creating a new programme aimed at expediting the ten outstanding legal cases, using mediation instead of contesting the cases.
Legal proceedings have begun in six cases, which have been taken against the HSE and/or the laboratories involved in analysing the smear tests. In three of these cases, the labs had indemnified the State.
Solicitors’ correspondence has been received in relation to a further four cases, and they are aware of one further case which is likely to lead to a legal action.
The SCA was involved in all of those cases.
Of the 162 women who had not been told that their smear tests had been reviewed, 15 have died.
Last week, Minister for Health Simon Harris revealed to the Dáil that there were other cases of cervical cancer that were not reported to CervicalCheck, and were never reviewed. Those cases had been reported to the National Cancer Registry.
Those additional cases will likely come before the claims agency.
The smear test scandal made headlines after terminally-ill Limerick mother-of-two Vicky Phelan settled a High Court case for €2.5million late last month.
Last week, an Oireachtas committee was told that there are 36 women with cervical cancer diagnoses who still haven’t been told that their smear tests were erroneous.
Of that number, there are 14 women who were outside the public health system, and efforts are being made to get into contact with them or their families.