APIL president Brett Dixon said:

“Learning from avoidable harm is crucial to reducing the cost of negligence for the NHS and we welcome the National Audit Office’s acknowledgement of this in its recommendations. APIL has called for better data collection and co-ordination for years so that repeated harm can be prevented and opportunities for learning are not lost. We are just starting to see the impact of cuts to legal costs which will continue to streamline claimant costs significantly. But more savings could be made with co-operation on both sides to avoid unnecessary delays and additional work, rather than simply slashing claimant lawyers’ costs further or denying injured patients full compensation. In cases where fixed costs could be workable, the costs should be set to reflect a better procedure. Meanwhile, the NHS needs to put its house in order. 39 per cent of negligence claims are the result of harm caused by needless delays in diagnosis or treatment and more than twice a week someone has a foreign object left inside of them, including broken drill bits, surgical needles, swabs, and bags used for the retrieval of specimen. Let’s not forget that the overriding concern here should be the cost in human misery.”