Health boards have paid out £60m in legal claims since 2018

Health boards in Scotland have paid out more than £60 million in legal claims since 2018, figures show.

Statistics released to the Scottish Conservatives under freedom of information legislation from 13 of the country’s 14 health authorities show that £60,372,215.76 had been spent on legal claims, as of June last year.

In total, 2,466 claims for compensation were made against the various health boards for a number of different reasons.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – the country’s biggest health board by population – topped the list, paying out more than £17.5m as a result of 698 claims during that time period.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane, a former GP in Glasgow, said the released figures are a result of understaffing in the health service, calling on the Scottish Government to work towards a “modern, efficient and local health service”.

He added: “My heart goes out to the patients and families who have suffered as a result of failings in Scotland’s NHS.

“But the buck for this stops with a succession of SNP health secretaries – including Humza Yousaf and discredited Michael Matheson.

“These figures are a damning indictment of their dire workforce planning, which has left our health service woefully under-resourced.

“Dedicated staff are dangerously overstretched and, tragically but inevitably, this is leading to more mistakes, a growing number of compensation claims and resulting legal costs.

“Although anyone who experiences sub-standard care is entitled to – and right to – seek redress, at a time when budgets are so tight, the NHS can ill-afford to be spending such vast sums on fighting legal battles instead of frontline patient care.”

Dr Gulhane concluded: “Scotland’s NHS is lurching from crisis to crisis under SNP mismanagement – and Humza Yousaf’s flimsy recovery plan has failed to remobilise it.

“Ministers must match the Scottish Conservative plans for a modern, efficient and local health service.”