The NHS spent £2.6 billion settling clinical negligence claims between April 2022 and March 2023, according to the annual report released by NHS Resolution. However, eight in ten claims were resolved without litigation, the highest ever volume.
Thanks to what NHSR says is part of their ongoing commitment to ‘innovative’ dispute resolution, a more collaborative approach across the legal market has kept both patients and NHS staff out of court.
Pre-action steps like mediation, resolution meetings and stock takes have been integral components for resolving concerns early. They’ve also recognised that the longer claims take to settle, the higher the costs associated with each individual claim. Dragging out a claim only adds further frustration and hurt to patients whose lives have already been disrupted.
Despite the annual spend increasing, NHSR say early intervention has saved the health service £4.6bn, with almost half of all cases resolved without compensation paid out to patients.
Compensation is rarely the motivating factor for patients harmed by medical negligence. Most want an apology, to understand what went wrong, and prevent other patients going through the same ordeal. They want the NHS to learn, and they want to be able to heal.
It seems that, this year, the penny has finally dropped for the NHS. They have taken a less adversarial approach to clinical negligence claims made against them, showing more empathy and compassion for patients who have been harmed.
NHSR says significant progress has also been made to improve patient safety by developing products that share insights and knowledge across the health service. You can find the full report for April 2022-Mar 2023 here, but below are some standout statistics.
How many claims did the NHS receive in 2022-23?
There were 13,511 new cases made against the NHS this year. This is a fall of around 1,500 on the previous year.
The top four categories were similar to previous years:
- Obstetrics 1,329 (13% of all cases) up from 1,243 previous year
- Emergency Medicine 1,292 (12% of all cases) up from 1,229 previous year
- Orthopaedic Surgery 1,127 (11% of all cases) down from 1,203 previous year
- General Surgery 728 (7% of all cases) down from 738 in previous year
The total value of all new claims received this year stands at £5.9bn.
How many claims did the NHS resolve in 2022-23?
NHS Resolution settled 13,499 cases this year, compared to 13,070 in 2021-22. Of these cases, 51 percent were awarded compensation.
How many claims against the NHS go to court?
This year, only 56 claims went to trial. Around a third of these claimants (18) were awarded compensation.
What was the cost of harm in 2022-23?
The cost of harm is defined as the current value of the estimated cost of claims expected or received from incidents in the financial year. It includes an estimate of the lump sum owed for claims, future periodic payments and legal costs.
In 2022-23, the cost of harm was £6.27bn. It reduced significantly from the previous year’s total of £13.28bn, but this was mainly due to the reduced value of claims which has been set by HM Treasury.
How much did the NHS pay out for claims in 2022-23?
This year, the NHS paid out £2.641bn for medical negligence claims. This increased by around 10 percent from last year’s sum of £2.4bn. This was driven by an increase in the number of high-value clinical claims falling due for settlement. The annual spend was broken down into £1.99bn damages paid to claimants, claimant legal costs of £490m and NHS legal costs of £158m.
Maternity claims continue to be costliest area
Maternity or birth-related claims were the highest value claim type, amounting to 65 percent of the total. They also made up over 40 percent of the total spend, costing the NHS £44.9m this year. Due to the severity and life-long implications of birth injuries, the value of damages for each individual claim tends to be substantial, taking into account medical and care needs for disabled children.
The endemic failings in maternity care across the NHS has rightly been in the spotlight in recent years. High-profile investigations have been made at various NHS trusts, including Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, East Kent, and Derby and Burton. The largest maternity investigation is set to get underway at Nottingham, reviewing 1,700 cases.
The continued rise in maternity claims made against the NHS is a stark reminder that things don’t seem to be improving.
Improving maternity care is one of the NHS’ four key strategies for the next few years. In the annual report, they say that they have focused so much of their resource on addressing the causes and management of incidences of brain injury sustained at birth, which have a life-long and devastating impact.
The average time between an incident occurring and a family receiving an admission of liability has reduced from 80 months to less than 18 months, allowing families to access critical funding for immediate care needs without having to wait for a lengthy assessment of the full extent of the harm caused.
Safety issues are also under more scrutiny with the Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS) promoting best standards of care. NHSR claim they have increased funding to support trusts with tangible plans to improve, and expect to distribute over £10 million back into the NHS to support safety improvement plans. There was also a national maternity conference attended by 215 delegates from 77 trusts, aimed at sharing the experiences of families, maternity units and maternity safety experts.
More money needs to be spent on preventing these life-changing and traumatic incidents happening in the first place. A report by The Times newspaper earlier this year showed that the cost of compensating mothers and their families for harm caused by NHS maternity services is more than double what the health service spends on such care each year.