Delays in delivering redress to injured patients and the rising cost of social care are driving the NHS’s compensation bill, lawyers have told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Evidence to the committee’s inquiry on the cost of clinical negligence claims has been published today (20 November).
“Every pound spent is because of avoidable harm and suffering. Policymakers must be vigilant and not focus on the wrong targets as they seek to tackle the increasing spend,” said Suzanne Trask, executive committee member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).
“Calls from some quarters to repeal the right to claim damages to fund private treatment for injuries are groundless. There is no evidence that victims of NHS negligence take that money and then use NHS services ‘for free’,” she explained.
“Taking away those damages would force injured people to return for their treatment and care to the same, already overstretched, NHS which caused them harm in the first place,” Ms Trask went on.
“The vast proportion of the spend is on essential damages for social care for children suffering life-long catastrophic birth injuries, who have complex needs. Providing support for a brain damaged child has always been innately expensive, but the cost is rising at a far higher rate than inflation,” Ms Trask said. “This is a wider problem affecting the provision of care in this country.”
The PAC is scrutinising a recent report from the National Audit Office, which had a focus on legal costs as a contributor to NHS spending on negligence.
“Costs for those representing patients will always be higher than the NHS’s legal costs, as claimants are the ones who must prove a case from scratch. All of the knowledge about what happened to the patient lies within the NHS,” Ms Trask said.
“In the last 10 years, delays in claims have ramped up the costs*. Many of these delays are within the NHS Resolution’s power to resolve.
“While reducing delays would help bring down costs, it must be accepted that legal costs are an inevitable consequence of ensuring injured victims of clinical negligence have access to justice,” she said.