Clinical negligence compensation payouts from NHS total almost £300 million
01/01/2000
We found you very professional as well as approachable, helpful and caring. We can now move on and look forward to a more stable and secure future. I am sure that this would not have happened without yourselves being involved.
Jayne, Evesham
NHS compensation pay-outs for clinical negligence claims came to nearly £300m in 2003-4 according to the latest figures, reported in national news today.
The £296,811,618 figure was released by Health Minister Jane Griffiths and shows a dramatic increase from 1996/7.
Then pay-outs came to just over £1m before rising to nearly £696m in 2001/2 and falling back to £335m in 2002/3.
The British Medical Association's Edwin Borman has said the current system for compensation in the NHS is "costly, unpredictable and often unjust".
Partner and head of Clinical Negligence Muiris Lyons said:
"At Alexander Harris we receive over two hundred enquiries a month from patients who feel let down by the NHS.
The focus of the majority of enquirers is not compensation but primarily an apology or to simply find out what went wrong.
A cash sum alone cannot rebuild a life, but it can help to bring some quality to the lives of people who will never be able to walk, work or live without constant care and supervision.
When people act negligently in all walks of life, they are expected to pay. This should apply even more strictly when someone's life is damaged as a result of that negligence."
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