Increase in number of medical negligence cases
There has been a significant increase in the number of medical negligence cases coming to court in Ireland.
The Irish Courts Service has reported an increase of 70 per cent between last year and the year 2006, an increase which is concerning and cannot be satisfactorily explained.
Although personal injury cases have risen in general in Ireland between those two years, the area where the increase was really noticeable was for clinical negligence cases. The number of new medical negligence cases rose from 334 in 2006 to a whopping 556 in 2007. The increase has put pressure on court facilities and people.
A spokesperson for the Irish Courts Service was baffled by the massive increase, saying “There haven’t been any legal or administrative changes that can account for this rise in medical negligence cases.”
“We checked this with the High Court after the figures emerged but no statutes have been reorganised or any other legal changes. He said. “Maybe people just hate their doctors or something.”
A spokesperson for Patient Focus, a support group which works in Ireland with victims of medical negligence thought that perhaps media coverage on 'superbugs' such as MRSA had something to do with the rise in cases brought to court.
“We haven’t noticed a sudden increase in people approaching us, this is steady all the time,” he said. “But litigation can be a long process it can take three to four years for a case to actually go to court.”
He added that“We have noticed quite a few MRSA and Clostridium victims/families coming to us, many of these are serious cases. A lot of these cases have been going through coroners and have progressed to court.”
Finally he put the increase down to the media saying “The increase is probably because there is a lot more media attention on medical negligence and it is far easier for people to access specialist medical negligence legal advice, than say 10 years ago. There are some great medical negligence lawyers out there now.”
Updated on 18/07/2008