Birth compensation bill jumps €116m in decade
COMPENSATION payments for birth incidents have increased 30 times in the past decade, new figures have shown.
HSE payouts in maternity suits rocketed from €4million in 2007 to €120million last year, Fianna Fáil health spokesman Stephen Donnelly revealed yesterday.
‘Since 2007 we have seen a ten-fold increase in claims and a 30-fold increase in payments made as a result,’ he added.
Mr Donnelly added the increase was not surprising ‘given the many high-profile incidents in maternity units’ in recent years, with big settlements covered in newspapers and on radio and television.
‘Nonetheless, it does bring home the price of error in our health services and underscores the need for standards and vigilance,’ he said, noting that every case involves a family who have had their ‘world turned upside-down’.
‘Bear in mind that the HSE Service Plan for last year committed €81.3million for the expansion of existing services or the development of new services, which shows how significant the sum for payments is, being half as much again,’ he added.
‘The cost of compensation for errors and mistakes in our maternity units last year alone was 50% greater than the total funding being made available for increasing health service provision in this State.’
After being provided with the 2017 figures in reply to a Dáil question, Mr Donnelly said taxpayers and the political system urgently needed to understand why there has been such an increase in both claims made and compensation paid out.
‘Is it because more mistakes are being made in our maternity hospitals or is it because there is more open communication and disclosure of errors leading to more cases being taken?’ he asked.
‘I do also feel that a review of medico-legal practices in this State needs to be undertaken as a priority. Minister Harris needs to get on top of these costs and, more importantly, provide the resources or training needed to cut them down.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘The management of clinical negligence claims arising from the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients in public healthcare enterprises is delegated to the State Claims Agency, which has a statutory mandate to investigate and manage these cases to completion.
‘The figures relate to compensation payments made to patients and service users only. The payments can relate to any type of claim where the service has recorded as Maternity Services, ie, birth-specific procedures, medication errors, hospitalacquired infection, etc.
‘Providing such information at a hospital level on a claim-by-claim basis could have the unfortunate and unintended consequence of causing the State Claims Agency to breach data protection legislation.’