English taxpayers face huge bill for NHS compensation costs - MDU warns
The total bill for NHS hospital clinical negligence claims could cost each taxpayer in England at least £1,030 the Medical Defence Union warned today. The costs of meeting the NHS's clinical negligence reserves – the money it puts aside for known and future claims – has risen from £907 per English taxpayer in 2013, and will continue to increase unless the Government acts to introduce a fairer compensation system.
Today the NHS litigation authority's annual report revealed the huge scale of the liabilities it faces for clinical negligence claims of £25.6 billion, a rise of 13% from £22.7bn in 2013.
Dr Christine Tomkins, MDU chief executive, said:
"The financial burden the NHS faces for all known and future negligence claims is astonishing. We must be realistic about how we deal with this problem. Medicine is complex and it is not risk free. We must all do all we can to prevent avoidable harm to patients, but not all harm is avoidable. The risks and benefits of treatment have to be weighed in the balance. Errors do happen but thankfully are rare and patients who are negligently harmed must be fairly compensated but to keep on paying multimillion pound awards is not sustainable.
"The astronomical size of these claims is largely a result of the high cost of compensation for long-term future care and loss of earnings. Society cannot afford to fund such big awards indefinitely and these runaway costs need to be tackled.
"People tend to be aware of other types of inflation like retail price and house price inflation but few people know that the increases we are seeing in compensation costs have far exceeded these other types of inflation. For example, the highest individual claim the MDU paid out on behalf of a surgeon was for more than £9 million. At current rates of claims inflation, in seven years time that would be likely to cost at least £18 million. Clinical negligence claims inflation seems to be off the radar although it affects us all and it will be to our detriment if it is not addressed."
The MDU is calling for legal reforms to ensure the system for compensating patients is fair, proportionate and affordable. Our aims include:
1. Repeal of the Law Reform (Personal Injury) Act 1948 which means that the cost of future care must be calculated on the basis that it will be provided privately, and that NHS care must be disregarded. We believe those paying compensation should instead be able to fund health and social care provided by NHS and public bodies.
2. A cap on future care costs and loss of earnings awards. There should be caps on the level of damages awarded for future care and damages for loss of earnings should be capped at three times the national average salary.
