Trust paid out nearly £20m for clinical blunders

The scale of the payments by Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) can be revealed just days after it was placed in special measures following the publication of a highly critical review of 14 trusts with higher than expected death rates by NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh.

The probe was ordered by Ministers in the wake of the landmark report into the scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

The Northern Lincolnshire and Goole trust, which runs hospitals in Goole, Grimsby, and Scunthorpe, made clinical negligence payments, including legal costs, totalling about £8.4m in 2019/10 – £3.4m more than its contribution to the national risk sharing scheme, which covers all NHS trusts in England.

It paid out £6.7m in 2010/11, £1.2m more than its indemnity contributions, and £4.1m in 2011/12, although this was about £2m less than its contributions to the risk scheme.

As of yesterday, the trust had paid out £438,240 for claims relating to the last financial year, although it expects this figure to rise to about £1.5m when all are settled.

The NHS nationally has to save £20bn by 2015, with NLAG expected to make £15m of savings by then, leading some to question how quality of care can be improved amid such budget pressures.

Simon Wilson, a clinical negligence expert at Neil Hudgell Solicitors, heads a team representing about 20 patients or families making claims against the trust.

He said: “We are dealing with clients who have suffered a number of problems at this trust, particularly relating to general medicine, elderly care, diabetic care, hip surgery and stroke.

“The main issue is with non-elective admissions, in other words emergencies.

“For many of our clients, the news that this trust has now been placed in special measures will be welcomed as they will now feel that at last the Government is recognising the failings which have caused so much suffering to so many patients.”

The trust declined to comment on the clinical negligence payments.

The political fall-out over the failings at the trusts continued yesterday as Professor Sir Mike Richards, the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, called for hundreds of NHS patients to join inspection teams as part of plans to radically change the way hospitals in England are assessed.

Sir Mike said he wanted to build up a “small army” of inspectors.

The new beefed-up review teams, which will be made up of patients, doctors, nurses and other professionals, will give all hospitals in England school-style ratings.

Each of the 161 acute hospital trusts will be rated as “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” or “inadequate”, he said.

In his first Press conference after taking the job, Sir Mike pledged the review teams will be “robust, fair and transparent”.

He said: “We will have relatively large multi-professional teams of experts – those will include doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, managers, but importantly they will also include patients and carers who we consider to be experts by experience.

“Today I am issuing a call for inspectors. I want assistance in this inspection process. I want to start building a small army of inspectors. These inspectors need to come from different walks of life, some of them will be practising clinicians who will come and do two or three inspections a year, some others will be retired clinicians, but importantly we are also seeking patients and carers and we will provide training.”