A recent letter to the Justice Secretary signed by the NHS Confederation, the British Medical Association and others has warned of the rising cost of medical negligence claims and the impact this is having on the NHS budget.
The letter states:
“The rising cost of clinical negligence is unsustainable and means that vast amounts of resource which could be used more effectively have to be diverted elsewhere.
“We fully accept that there must be reasonable compensation for patients harmed through clinical negligence, but this needs to be balanced against society’s ability to pay.
“This is money that could be spent on front-line care. Given the wider pressures on the healthcare system, the rising cost of clinical negligence is already having an impact on what the NHS can provide.”
The letter highlights that the NHS spent £1.7bn on medical negligence claims in 2017 equating to 1.5% of spending on front-line health services.
Writing for The Telegraph, the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation Niall Dickson commented:
“…is little doubt that we now have a culture where too many professionals are frightened of being sued, and where this affects the way they practice medicine.”
But is it fair that those who have suffered as a result of negligence by the NHS should be paid less? And is it fair to attribute the rising cost of negligence claims to a culture of blame? The consequences of negligence are very often devastating on the patient and their families and can sometimes be fatal. Furthermore, the pain and suffering caused can be especially hard to bear knowing that the injury could have been avoided.
Perhaps the solution to bringing the negligence bill under control lies not in reducing the compensation paid out when negligence has occurred but in improving patient safety and addressing the under-funding of the NHS. This is likely to lead to a reduction in medical negligence claims which would in turn be likely to reduce the compensation bill.
In response to the letter, Peter Walsh, Chief Executive of patient safety charity, AvMA, stated:
“Our society still values the NHS and also fairness for people who have been harmed through no fault of their own. If the NHS were to be given the funding it needs and if enough of it was spent on improving patient safety, there would not be a huge compensation bill in the first place.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson commented:
“All personal injury victims should of course be fully compensated, but the costs involved should also be proportionate.
“To help ensure this happens, we have set out proposals… as well as asking the Civil Justice Council to look at measures to control costs in clinical negligence cases.”
It seems deeply unfair that budget constraints should lead to victims receiving less compensation and to attribute the rising cost of claims on a culture of blame. Instead, moving the focus to patient safety and adequate funding is likely to bring the costs of medical claims under control through fewer incidents of negligence.
Addressing the root cause of the problem, although not an easy step, appears to be a more sustainable solution to the problem.
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