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NHS Negligence Figures Then and Now

Data from the NHS Resolution report reveals that the ‘cost of harm,’ now referred to as the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) cost of claims arising from incidents, throughout 2021/2022, is estimated at £13.3 billion. 60% of this figure is made up by claims related to maternity negligence.

The cost of settled negligence claims in 2021/22 sits at a reported £2.4 billion which has increased from the previous years data where, in 2020/21, this figure sat at £2.2 billion. Also, since 2006/2007, the cost of medical negligence cases for the NHS has increased significantly. In 2007/2008, the total cost was £582 million overall.

Due to these rising figures, the UK Government has set out to put a cap on legal costs pertaining to medical negligence cases. They plan to achieve this by creating a more streamlined system for lower value clinical negligence cases, ensuring that legal fees are proportionate and that the process is as efficient as possible. This could save the Government £500 million in legal fees.

Court Proceedings and NHS Negligence 

The NHS have reported that, in 2021/22, 77% of claims were settled without court proceedings. This has gradually increased over the past few years, with 74.7% of claims settled without formal proceedings in 2020/21 and 71.5% in 2019/20 showing a continued effort to settle claims without the involvement of a court.

 Claim Type Statistics

According to the latest NHS Resolution report (2021/2022), the top three claim types making up the highest volume of clinical negligence claims from the hospital scheme included: obstetrics claims, emergency medicine and orthopaedic surgery. Their percentages can be seen below: 

• Obstetrics Claims (12% of overall volume)
• Emergency Medicine Claims (12% of overall volume)
• Orthopaedic Surgery Claims (12% of overall volume)

Of the three claim types, obstetrics claims also cost the NHS the highest amount, with 62% of the annual cost being driven by these claims.

Maternity-related Claims

In 2021/22, maternity-related claims made up the largest proportion of the overall cost of harm. This is an area that has been highlighted by the governing bodies within the NHS and has been addressed by the Resolution who have included maternity claims as a core focus to improve on in their three-year strategy.

Failure To Diagnose or Wrong Diagnosis Statistics 

The NHS also recently released data surrounding the most common injuries occurring from a failure to diagnose or a delayed diagnosis that resulted in a payout. The data concludes that the most common primary injury was unnecessary pain with 976 claims and the most costly injury was fatality with a total of £59,571,839 in damages paid and £7,556,495 NHS legal costs.

Source: NHS Resolution

Settled Claims

There was a reported increase in the volume of clinical negligence claims and incidents reported throughout 2021/22 with this increasing to 15,078 claims

Of the 16,484 settled clinical and non-clinical claims in 2021/22, 48.6% of these settled without damages paid. These settled claims include: claims that have been agreed upon and have ongoing payments being made and also claims where damages have been agreed or denied but costs have not yet been confirmed. In 2020/21, there were 15,674 settled claims of a similar nature so this has increased from the last reporting period.

Low Value vs High Value Claims

A low value claim is considered to be a claim between £1,001 and £25,000. This is where the majority of medical negligence claims will sit. 

The highest value cases are worth millions of pounds. One of the largest medical negligence payouts recorded was £37 million after failures in maternity care led to severe disabilities and the child needing round the clock care.

As you can see from the table below, in 2006/2007 there were 2189 cases awarded a low value settlement. This rose to 3855 in the period from 2021/2022. Cases reaching upwards of £3.5 million have increased nearly eight fold, with 42 recorded cases in 2006/2007 and 364 in 2021/2022.

The above list of figures and statistics aims to demonstrate the current and previous position of NHS Negligence claims including costs, volume and types. All information can be found on the NHS Resolution, including their current and previous reports.