Victims of clinical negligence are waiting a record-breaking amount of time to receive justice, a new research report from APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) reveals.
“Victims of clinical negligence are waiting longer than ever to receive both the answers and the financial support they desperately need,” said APIL president Guy Forster.
“Over the past 10 years the path to justice has become more time-consuming. It is well-established that legal costs, which are under ever-increasing scrutiny, are driven by delays,” he said.
On average, it takes NHS Resolution (NHSR) more than two years to settle clinical negligence claims. When compared with 2013/14, a victim of NHS negligence now has to wait 10 months longer for their claim to settle.
The figures are revealed in APIL’s new comprehensive clinical negligence research report - Clinical Negligence: The reality behind the myths, which includes proposals to improve the efficiency of the clinical negligence claims process.
“Full compliance, from all parties, with the Pre-Action Protocol for Clinical Disputes would go a long way towards keeping claims moving along. We’re also calling for amendments to the pre-action protocol to bolster the letter of notification requirements, and templates to demonstrate effective correspondence within the protocol, to ensure meaningful investigations take place at the earliest possible stage of the claim,” Guy explained.
APIL’s research found that delays are hitting the most severely injured victims hardest of all. Those with the highest value claims now have to wait more than eight years for their claim to settle, which is almost two years longer than in 2013/14.
“There may in some cases be good reasons to wait longer, such as taking time to see how an injury evolves before assessing long term needs. However, there are instances where victims of negligence could be spared an unnecessarily long wait to receive justice. Reducing the delays would also help bring down legal costs in a way that does not undermine vital access to legal support,” Guy said.
“With the Department of Health and Social Care considering its next steps on addressing NHS spending on negligence, there is a threat of detrimental, radical reform to the compensation system coming down the line. The evidence in APIL’s report shows that the answer always comes back to better patient safety, but the claims process could in some ways still be more efficient,” Guy went on.
“Implementing our proposals would help reduce delays, reduce legal costs in turn, and ensure the claims process better serves victims of negligence.”