Medical Negligence Claims Cost NHS Millions
It has recently been revealed that
medical negligence claims are costing the
NHS millions of pounds every year. Hospitals have been criticised for not doing enough to address the issue which is a huge drain on NHS funding.
The University Hospital in Hartlepool faced £7.8 million pounds in compensation claims between 2006 and 2007 and the worse offending hospital is County Durham and Darlington NHS trust which lost £9,388,118 in claims and which suffered a further £1.4 million in litigation costs. The government has called for drastic changes to be made to the existing system in order to prevent medical mishaps and lower the number of medical negligence claims which are made.
The Director of the The Taxpayer’s Alliance commented in a recent Hartlepool Mail article: "The NHS has got to be alive to the fact we live in an age of compensation. If trusts were doing their jobs properly and not making mistakes there wouldn't be any money to pay out at all."
Updated on 15/05/2008