Millions paid out for medical blunders in Yorkshire over two decades ago

MILLIONS of pounds in compensation is being paid out every year to people harmed by medical blunders which happened at NHS hospitals more than two decades ago.
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In the past five years more than £152m has been paid out by the Department of Health to settle negligence claims after mistakes which were made before April 1995 at NHS trusts across England.

An analysis of NHS figures has found that the overall cost of medical negligence in England has risen four-fold in the past decade, to £1.6bn last year.

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Mistakes made at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust, both historical and more recent, cost more than £110m over five years, the second highest amount among NHS trusts in England.

The cost of pre-1995 claims settled in that period was £4.4m.

The trust said negligence claims had fallen for two years in a row.

A spokesperson added: “Leeds is the second largest hospital trust in the UK and we see in excess of 1.5m patients every year.

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“Despite the high volume of care delivered including highly complex and specialist care, clinical incidents at the trust thankfully remain relatively rare.”

For historical negligence claims, the highest amount paid out was following errors at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, at more than £8.4m.

The trust said in a statement: “The vast majority of the people we treat every year at Bradford Hospitals experience high quality, safe care.

“We are committed to making sure that we learn from our mistakes and we share that learning across the organisation.”

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The second highest figure for historical payouts was Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust, at £8.1m.

Medical director Sewa Singh said: “The costs are mainly due to a small number of high value historical cases from before April 1995 related to our three main sites, before reorganisation into an NHS Foundation Trust in 2004.”

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals pointed out that it had not yet been set up when pre-1995 claims totalling £6.2m were originally lodged. Medical director David Throssell said: “The cases are attributed to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals because we are the successor NHS organisation.”

The cost of all negligence claims, both historical and non-historical, was £6.2bn between 2012 and 2017.

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Pre-1995 mistakes by NHS trusts in England cost the Department of Health £152.4m over five years after legal fees were added.

Maternity claims made up 71 per cent of that total.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, said: “We see these problems occurring again and again. It is time the NHS had consistent high-quality training for midwives and for doctors to ensure they are able to recognise the complications.”

Measures planned by the Department of Health to rein in the costs include a cap on legal fees recouped by law firms and cash incentives to make maternity services safer.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Our relentless drive to improve patient safety, including an ambition to halve the rates of neonatal deaths, 
stillbirths, maternal deaths and brain injuries caused during or shortly after labour by 2025, will help to reduce traumatic and costly safety failings in the NHS and ensure better protection for patients.”