NHS clinical negligence liabilities hit £58.2bn amid calls to fortify affected person protection

The NHS’s overall liabilities for clinical negligence have hit an “astounding” £58.2bn amid ministers’ failure to fortify affected person protection, an influential team of MPs have warned.

The Commons public accounts committee (PAC) mentioned the “jaw-dropping” sums being paid to sufferers of botched remedy and govt state of no activity to cut back mistakes had been “unacceptable”.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has put aside £58.2bn to settle proceedings bobbing up from scientific negligence that took place in England ahead of 1 April 2024, the PAC disclosed.

The sum is so massive that it’s the second-largest legal responsibility throughout the entire of presidency, with simplest nuclear decommissioning dearer, the committee mentioned in a damning file.

“The fact that government has set aside tens of billions of pounds for clinical negligence payments, its second most costly liability after some of the world’s most complex nuclear decommissioning projects, should give our entire society pause,” mentioned Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the PAC chair.

“This is a sign of a system struggling to do right by the people it is designed to help,” he added.

The PAC instructed ministers to take pressing steps to cut back “tragic incidences of patient harm” and to additionally finish a state of affairs the place attorneys take an “astronomical” 19% of the repayment awarded to those that are a success in suing the NHS. That amounted to £536m of the £2.8bn that the well being carrier in England paid out in damages in 2023-24 – its document invoice for errors.

“Far too many patients still suffer clinical negligence which can cause devastating harm to those affected,” and the following damages drain important budget from the NHS, the file mentioned.

A DHSC supply permitted the PAC’s findings, announcing: “The cost of clinical negligence claims is rising at an unsustainable rate, eating into resources available for frontline care. Annual cash payments have more than doubled in the last 10 years and quadrupled in the past 17 years to £2.8bn.”

The PAC criticised the dept for no longer but having defined why affected person hurt happens and devised a technique to overhaul affected person protection, regardless of the committee within the final parliament asking the DHSC achieve this by means of final summer time. The DHSC “has only recently written to us in response” to that advice, the PAC mentioned.

“It is unacceptable that the department is yet to develop a plan to deal with the cost of clinical negligence claims and so much taxpayers’ money is being spent on legal fees,” the file says.

Paul Whiteing, the executive government of affected person protection charity Action Against Medical Accidents, mentioned that proceedings arose over mistakes by means of NHS workforce in each space of care. “But the largest sums are awarded to families of babies that are left with lifelong disabilities, such as brain damage, through negligence at birth.”

The NHS has confronted a chain of maternity care scandals lately that experience left moms and small children useless or badly injured. In 2023 the Care Quality Commission, the well being carrier care regulator, mentioned that two-thirds of maternity gadgets supplied substandard care.

The NHS would face fewer proceedings if it used to be extra open when errors occur, Whiteing added.

“We see many people who only litigate because the NHS ‘pulled down the shutters’, by which I mean failed to properly look into what went wrong, offer a meaningful apology for their mistake and involve the family in the investigation. If steps such as these were followed, many fewer people would resort to litigation,” he mentioned.

Jess Brown-Fuller, a Liberal Democrat well being spokesperson, mentioned the large price of NHS clinical negligence payouts are “symptomatic of a health service that simply is not functioning. The Labour government’s embrace of dither and delay on social care, maternity reforms and rebuilding our hospitals is prolonging the misery.”

In its research of the DHSC’s annual file and accounts for 2023-24, the PAC additionally published the price of development long-planned new prime containment labs in Harlow, Essex, to assist give protection to the United Kingdom in opposition to infectious illnesses, had spiralled from £530m to “an eye-watering projected £3.2bn”.

And it criticised the federal government for no longer spelling out what have an effect on its choice to abolish NHS England and awl tens of 1000’s of well being carrier managers would have on sufferers and workforce. It voiced worry about cuts to dentistry, GP products and services and well being prevention.

Matthew Taylor, the executive government of the NHS Confederation, echoed the PAC’s unease. “While many leaders understand the need for change, the lack of detail on how the national shake-up will be taken forward, the pace of this restructure, and how it connects to the ambitions of the 10-year plan are a cause for concern among staff,” he mentioned.

A DHSC spokesperson mentioned: “Patient safety is the bedrock of a healthy NHS and social care system. This government will ensure the country has the best system in place to keep patients safe by overhauling the overly complex bureaucracy of healthcare regulation and oversight and we will examine the drivers of costs, how to manage spending on clinical negligence and the potential merits of reform options.”