NHS must admit its errors quicker of face £4.3bn payouts to laywers
The NHS must admit its failings quicker or face paying out legal fees of up to £4.3 billion, a former Tory Health Secretary has said.
Stephen Dorrell spoke out after an investigation revealed NHS estimates of how much services would pay to lawyers if all the current claims they are facing go ahead.
Last year the NHS paid out £2.4 billion for negligence claims.
And asssessments of the total cost of all outstanding claims reached £83 billion, health watchdogs said.
Freedom of Information disclosures supplied to the BBC reveal that trusts expect to pay out £4.3 billion in legal fees, if all such claims went ahead.
Last year an investigation by this newspaper revealed that compensation paid out for harm and deaths caused by NHS delays and blunders had doubled in five years.
Yesterday Mr Dorrell, a former Tory health secretary, who chaired the Health Select committee for four years, said the NHS needed to admit mistakes more quickly, instead of spending huge sums on lawyers.
He said “the real scandal” in the health service was the time trusts spent arguing legal cases when they should have admitted to failings.
“That’s why we end up providing more than £4bn for laywers to extend the process and argue over who is responsible,” he said.
“You need to begin by addressing the culture and if a patient isn’t satisfied .. understand why the person isn’t satisfied and look for a learning opportunity. You need to get to decisions quicker.”
Dr Christine Tomkin, of the Medical Defence Union, which supports doctors at risk of litigation, said: "We are now awarding compensation in sums of money higher than almost anywhere in the world - including in a number of states in America. What we need is a fundamental change to the legal system."
Suzanne White, of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said people often find it difficult to get answers from the medical authorities and are left with no other option but to sue.
"What they want to do is find out what went wrong, why they have received these injuries ... and to make sure it doesn't happen to other patients," she said.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We are committed to tackling the unsustainable rise in the cost of clinical negligence and are working collaboratively across government and the NHS on proposals, which we will set out details of in due course.
"Our ambition is for the NHS to be the safest healthcare system in the world and it has been recognised that the rise in costs of claims is not due to a decline in patient safety."
NHS Resolution said the number of clinical negligence claims has remained relatively stable year on year but the value of those claims has risen.
