Select committee inquiry

Cost of Clinical Negligence in Trusts inquiry

Closed

Public Accounts Committee · Opened 27 September 2017 · Closed 27 September 2017

What the inquiry looked at

“Clinical negligence is the breach of a legal duty of care to a patient by members of the healthcare profession. Where this has taken place, a patient or their representative can claim damages and the NHS is liable for any claim against its employees. The cost to the NHS of clinical negligence claims was £1.6billion in 2016–17. This is quadruple the figure for 2006–07, according to figures from the National Audit Office (NAO). In the same time frame, legal costs for these claims have risen from £77million to £487million. Since 1995 NHS Resolution has provided indemnity cover for NHS trusts in England through its Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts. All 234 NHS England costs pay NHS Resolution an annual contribution towards this coverage. According to the NAO, the cost of claims handled by NHS Resolution's Clinical Negligence in Trusts Scheme is increasing faster than year-on-year increases in NHS funding, and is therefore impacting on how much NHS trusts can spend on care. The Public Accounts Committee will ask how the Department of Health, NHS Resolution and the Ministry of Justice are exploring the impact of rising costs and working together to tackle them while providing a quick and efficient service for claimants.”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What it found

In the committee's words, from the summary of 5th Report - Managing the costs of clinical negligence in hospital trusts ↗

The annual cost of the clinical negligence for trusts has quadrupled over the last decade—from £0.4 billion in 2006–07 to £1.6 billion in 2016–17—taking already scarce resources away from frontline services and patients. Despite longstanding concerns about these predictable rising costs, the government has been disappointingly slow and complacent in its response. There seems to be a prevailing attitude of defensiveness in the NHS when things go wrong, and a reluctance to admit mistakes, which is likely to be leading to more clinical negligence claims. The lack of consistent data across the system means that the NHS still does not fully understand why some people suffering harm choose to make claims or the root causes of negligence, so it is not well placed to learn from its mistakes. It is important that patients suffering as a result of clinical negligence are compensated and that lessons are learned but the mix of stretching efficiency targets, increasing financial pressures and patients waiting longer for treatment carries the risk of clinical negligence claims spiralling out of control without effective action. The government needs to take bolder and more coordinated action to prevent this from happening.

What the government said

No government response is linked to this report.

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How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 27 September 2017 to 1 December 2017.

Oral evidence 16 Oct 2017
Report 1 Dec 2017
Correspondence 27 Oct 2017
Sep 2017Dec 2017

What it recommended

The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 5th Report - Managing the costs of clinical negligence in hospital trusts ↗ on parliament.uk.