Scottish Daily Mail

Why a simple sorry could save the NHS millions

- By JONATHAN GORNALL

When his 20-month-old son Tahmeed died in the Royal London hospital after a series of catastroph­ic errors, the last thing his devastated father wanted from the nhS was money.

‘I had buried Tahmeed and I would have given anything to have him back,’ says Taufiqul Karim Suhrid, a cab dispatcher.

But he was shocked when, instead of explaining what had happened and apologisin­g, Barts health nhS Trust flatly denied the toddler’s death was a result of substandar­d treatment.

Like thousands of other victims of negligence fobbed off by an nhS frequently unwilling to admit it has made life-changing errors, Taufiqul had no choice but to instruct lawyers to force the trust to hand over his child’s records.

‘I would not have taken legal action, but it was the only way I could find out the truth,’ says Taufiqul, who lives with wife nargis and their two other children, son Tamjeed, 13, and daughter Tazmeen, two, in Ilford, east London.

The scenario is all too common, says the Society of Clinical Injury Lawyers. And as a result, tens of millions of pounds are being wasted by the nhS on legal fees because, say the lawyers, trusts refuse to put up their hands and admit to clinical mistakes and say sorry.

‘There are two ways to reduce the legal bill to the nhS,’ says Steve Webber, chair of the Society of Clinical Injury Lawyers. ‘The first is to improve safety. But the second is to say: “Sorry” when appropriat­e.’

he points out that 76per cent of cases are settled only after court proceeding­s have been issued, which incurs additional legal fees — on average, claimant costs in cases settled before court proceeding­s are started are about £20,000.

Average costs after proceeding­s begin are about £85,000. ‘That’s £65,000 per case it could be saving on average,’ says Mr Webber.

Last year, the nhS Litigation Authority paid £950 million in damages to patients, up 23 per cent from the year before.

It paid almost half that again — £418 million — in covering the claimants’ legal costs.

BuT the Society of Clinical Injury lawyers says the nhS conceded 2,500 cases after proceeding­s had been issued — so wasting £100million in legal costs.

Behind these big numbers are the heartbreak­ing human stories of misery inflicted by the nhS — insult added to injury as families have to fight to uncover what happened, as in Tahmeed’s case.

he was born prematurel­y on March 12, 2012, weighing just 3.3 lb. Battling various problems, including under-developed lungs, in January 11 the following year he was fitted with a feeding tube through his abdomen and into his stomach.

But after enduring ten months of pain, vomiting and almost constant diarrhoea, Tahmeed died on December 10, 2013, because until two days before his death, no one realised that part of the tube had blocked and perforated his bowel.

It wasn’t until May 2016 that the trust admitted ‘the treatment of Tahmeed, in this instance, fell below the standards to be expected which contribute­d materially to the death’. having fought the case until the eve of court action, it settled out of court for a five-figure sum.

‘I wasn’t looking for a cheque, but for an explanatio­n and maybe an apology,’ says his father Taufiqul. ‘To this day they haven’t said sorry.’

In January, health Secretary Jeremy hunt launched an attack on ‘unscrupulo­us law firms [that] cream off excessive legal costs’, and announced plans to cap legal fees on all cases in which the compensati­on paid is less than £25,000. It is claimed the cap will save the nhS up to £45 million a year.

But if the nhS Litigation Authority really wants to save legal fees, says Steve Webber, ‘the best thing it could do would be to settle more clear-cut cases earlier’.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents, adds: ‘The Department of health is being very disingenuo­us in painting this picture of greedy lawyers and claimants when there’s only a cost to the taxpayer because the nhS has been negligent and harmed people.

‘That cost is added to when they delay and deny.’

Lauren hurney, a medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, who represente­d Tahmeed’s family, says: ‘Much of his short life was spent in hospital, needlessly in pain.

Then his family had to endure three agonising years of denials from Barts health nhS Trust, which only added to the family’s already unbearable grief.’

Barts health did not comment on why it had insisted for so long nothing had gone wrong. But the trust said: ‘We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to Mr Suhrid and his family, and we have apologised to them for our failings.

‘We firmly believe an open and honest culture is vital if we are to learn from our mistakes and improve services for patients.’

In fact there is good evidence that ‘coming clean’ could save the nhS millions wasted on legal costs every year.

In the united States, the socalled ‘Michigan model’, introduced by the university of Michigan Medical Centre in 2004, has saved millions and is now being adopted by other hospitals.

The hospital pays compensati­on quickly when it is in the wrong, and the result has been fewer lawsuits and dramatical­ly reduced legal costs.

In Scotland, the SnP has pledged to introduce a nofault compensati­on scheme for the nhS that would mean patients do not have to go through lengthy court battles. It would offer compensati­on of up to £100,000 for ‘avoidable harm’ to a patient undergoing nhS treatment.

however, despite launching a consultati­on on the proposals in 2016, a Bill has yet to be introduced.

Meanwhile medical negligence compensati­on payouts have risen to a record level in Scotland.

nhS Scotland forked out 251 payments for clinical negligence in 2015-16, up 38 on the previous year and almost double the 132 made in 2010-11.

 ?? Picture:ALAMY ??
Picture:ALAMY

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom