'Urgent legal reform' needed as clinical negligence damages soar by 50 Percent

The figures are published in NHS Resolution's annual report and accounts. The number of new clinical negligence claims plateaued in 2017/18 at 10,673 (10,686), while claimant legal costs fell for the first time in years (by 6.4% to £467m). Defence legal costs rose 2.5% to £128m.

 

The Civil Liability Bill currently going through parliament will introduce a new method for working out the rate, with regular reviews by the lord chancellor. The change in the discount rate from 2.5% to -0.75% in March 2017 accounted for £404m of the £549m rise in damages pay-outs to patients.

 

NHS Resolution chief executive, Helen Vernon, welcomed growing engagement in mediation for those who act on behalf of injured patients, but states that the cost of clinical negligence remains at an all-time high. 'Total provisions for all our indemnity schemes continue to rise, from £65bn to £77bn, which brings a renewed urgency to efforts across government to tackle the drivers of that cost.' 

 

Chief executive of the Medical Defence Union (MDU) Dr Christine Tomkins notes that the 77bn figure represents a trebling in NHS Resolution's balance sheet in three years. She feels this is due to the rise in claims pay-outs in a 'hostile legal climate'; with some individual awards amounting to 20m which are unsustainable. 

 

Tomkins added: 'The government is listening. Following criticism from both the National Audit Office and the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, the Department of Health and Social Care convened a working group to look at how to manage the cost of clinical negligence to the NHS. But what we now need, in the interest of all users of the NHS, is urgent legal reform.

 

'One of the topics on the table is repeal of S2(4) of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948, which still requires all clinical negligence defendants to fund compensation on the basis it will be used for private, not NHS care, even though there is no guarantee that is how the money will be spent. The MDU has been campaigning for this legal change and others such as fixing claimant's legal fees and reforming the personal injury discount rate.'

 

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