NHS £60m negligence bill mainly due to childbirth errors

Published on Saturday 27 March 2010 19:17

THE NHS has paid out more than £60 million in negligence claims over a three year period, it emerged yesterday.

More than half the bill between 2006/7 and 20008/9 was run up by mistakes made in obstetrics and gynaecology.

These departments – which are responsible for childbirth, fertility treatment, terminations and hysterectomy operations – accounted for 34.6m of the claims.

More than 15m of that was in 2006/07, while 13.7m was paid out in 2008/09.

Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "Health boards need to put in place measures to ensure that women will be given the high-quality care, treatment and support they need, instead of having to resort to negligence claims.

"Now these figures are in the public domain, I think all health boards should review their protocol, training and support given to staff to find out why there are so many claims in this area."

About 4.3m was paid out over mistakes in general surgery over the three years, according to the figures obtained by the Tories in a parliamentary answer from health secretary Nicola Sturgeon. A further 4.1m was awarded to people who suffered because of negligence in dietetics departments. And the last two years have seen 659,000 paid out in negligence claims over mistakes in accident and emergency departments.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said yesterday that compensation awards depend on the circumstances. She added: "The values fluctuate from year to year, because of the number of high-value cases that may settle in any given year. These are mostly birth-related cases that often take several years to settle, as reflected in the greater amounts paid out under obstetrics and gynaecology."

She also said there had been a significant fall in new negligence cases in recent years, a sign of improved NHS quality in Scotland.