Medical negligence is an ongoing fact of life in the healthcare industry. Both individual practitioners can be found to have acted with neglect, but so too can entire organisations. In the UK, the relevant organisation is the NHS, which is constantly having to deal with the claims made against it.
NHS negligence in figures
A recent report from the Resolution Foundation reveals the full scale of the problem. There were 13,511 new claims for the year 2022/23, which represents a slight decrease from the 15,078 of the previous year. The organisation attributes this fall to a technical change in the way that claims are processed. Around 80% of clinical claims are settled out of court, which is a result of deliberate strategy by the foundation, which is highly incentivised to settle, and thereby limits the cost of a formal process. During this financial year around £2.7 billion has been paid out.
Is reform needed?
The compensation scheme pursued by the NHS has come under significant scrutiny in recent years. The annual cost of payouts is expected to reach £4.6 billion, according to the Health and Social Care Committee report from 2022. The chair of the committee, Jeremy Hunt, was eager to advocate for reform, urging the government to adopt the recommendations of the report. Mr Hunt has since been appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the reforms themselves have yet to be announced.
Making a claim against the NHS
According to a survey by the National Accident Helpline, around 30% of people have doubts about making a claim against the NHS. These people might be slightly reassured that the money used to pay for damages comes from the Resolution Foundation’s budget, rather than that of the NHS proper. Consequently, any payout you receive won’t have any immediate impact on the quality of care delivered to other patients.
NHS medical negligence claims are made for good reason. To give yours the best chance of success, and to avoid having to attend court in person, you can entrust your claim to an experienced solicitor. There are many specialist firms operating today, most of which operate on a no-win, no-fee arrangement. This helps to protect claimants from the risk of financial hardship and stress.
There’s another case to be made here: a moral one. If you have suffered harm as a result of the actions of an organisation like the NHS, then you are legally entitled to compensation. Here, the law is a way of pointing out problems and providing the NHS with a financial incentive to take corrective action.
Anyone can make a claim, provided that they have suffered harm that would not have been inflicted by a competent individual or organisation.