Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Thirty-First Report - Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts
Public Accounts Committee
HC 459
Published 10 May 2024
Recommendations
4
Acknowledged
Set out by summer 2024, key reasons and actions to reduce clinical patient harm.
Recommendation
We are concerned that the Department is spending £2.6 billion on clinical negligence payments without an effective plan to minimise future costs of the scheme. Incidences of clinical negligence continue to result in significant cost to the taxpayer, particularly in …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and has identified various factors contributing to patient harm. It commits to prioritising continuous patient safety improvement and will write to the Committee later in 2024 to detail the specific actions it is taking with NHS England and partners to reduce harm.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (3)
6
Conclusion
Acknowledged
NHS England again made payments to suspended GPs who were not eligible to receive them and has failed to adequately recover these overpayments. NHS England has made overpayments worth £1.3 million to suspended medical practitioners since 2017–18, just £33,000 of which it has recovered. For the second consecutive year the …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation, stating that work is already underway to recover overpaid amounts from suspended GPs, and NHS England will oversee this progress. However, it does not detail specific planned changes to its control framework or explicitly confirm adherence to the summer 2024 deadlines.
20
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Department recognised that each incidence of clinical negligence is a tragedy for an individual and their families.31 They also come with a monetary cost to the taxpayer, in compensation payments for pain suffered and the impact on people’s everyday lives. The Department sets money aside in its accounts which …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observations on clinical negligence and patient safety. It commits to prioritising continuous improvement in patient safety and will write to the committee later in 2024 to detail actions being taken with partners to reduce harm and improve outcomes.
26
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Department also procured 20,900 individual ventilators at a cost of £569 million, held in stock as “an ICU reserve”. In February 2024 the Department decided to close the reserve and dispose of these ventilators. We asked the Department why these ventilators were being scrapped rather than being donated or …
Government Response Summary
The Department has not yet determined how it will dispose of the stockpile of ventilators, but a hierarchy will be used to ensure sale or donation before disassembly for recycling.