Hospital blunders in Scotland cost taxpayers £36m pay-outs

Published on Friday 27 March 2009 21:26

NHS blunders in Scotland have resulted in £36 million in compensation pay-outs in the last two years, it emerged yesterday.

This period has seen the highest and second highest bills for clinical negligence, according to figures released by the Conservatives. A total of 21.4 million was paid out in 2006-7, according to the party's public health spokesman, Jackson Carlaw MSP, in a Parliamentary answer. This was followed by a pay-out of 14.5 million last year (2007-8).

These figures compare to a compensation bill of 2.8 million during the first full year of devolution (1999-2000).

Mr Carlaw said: "At a time when taxes have risen to an all-time high and we are constantly told that investment in our health service stands at record levels, people have a right to ask why clinical negligence pay-outs are spiralling out of control in this way."

A Scottish Government spokesman said data from the NHS Central Legal Office showed there had been significant falls in the number of new clinical negligence claims recently.

The total number of claims being processed in 2004-5 was 2,879, including 455 new claims. By 2007-8 this had fallen to 1,409. "This demonstrates continuing and significant improvement in the quality of NHS services in Scotland," the spokesman said.