Facts & Figures
How much does clinical negligence cost the NHS?
Figures from the NHS Litigation Authority for the year 2005-2006 show that the cost of clinical negligence in England was £560 million. Whilst these are huge amounts of money which could be dramatically reduced by better patient safety and speedier settlement of claims, this is well under 1% of the NHS budget. The NHS does not pay any insurance premiums to cover its liabilities.
In Wales, the Welsh Health Legal Services report the cost of NHS clincial negligence claims in 2005-2006 to be £36.9 million.
In Scotland, the Central Legal Office reports that only £9.8 million was spent on medical negligence claims against the NHS in 2005-2006.
This means that over five times as much is spent on compensating people affected by medical negligence in England or indeed Wales, compared with Scotland.
How many people take legal action over clinical negligence?
In spite of official figures which put the number of medical errors at around one million a year in English hospitals alone (see below) the NHS Litigation Authority recorded only 5,609 in 2004-2005 - a drop of over 10% on 2003-2004. 6,251 new claims were recorded in 2003-2004 - a drop of 20% on the previous year.
How common are medical accidents?
The Department of Health itself estimates that there are approximately 850,000 medical accidents in English hospitals alone each year, half of which should have been avoided.('An Organisation with a Memory', Department of Health, 2000)
