£250m Bill For NI Medical Negligence

The price of medical negligence in Northern Ireland is due to top £250m, auditors have said.

A report has calculated the bill for settling medical negligence cases over the last five years.

It also found the Department of Health paid out £116m: £77m for damages and £39m for legal costs in claims made since 2007.

It is estimated a further £136m will be spent to cover those that have not yet been settled.

The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) released the report, and said the actual financial impact on the Health Service was much harder to estimate.

The examination was undertaken as part of an overall assessment of service safety provided by Northern Ireland's Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts.

It also found that many incidents of potential harm to the patient go unreported.

Auditors said trusts had made progress in creating a work environment where staff did not fear reporting such incidents, but that more had to be done.

The report was launched by Comptroller and Auditor General Kieran Donnelly.

He said: "Overall, we enjoy high standards of care from Northern Ireland HSC Trusts. However, reducing adverse incidents that cause, or could have caused, unexpected harm to patients and clients is a core task for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety and HSC Trusts."

It was also discovered that in some cases legal costs exceeded the amount of damages paid out.

The NIAO report recommended the development of a formal resolution process that would offer patients a viable alternative to pursuing legal action.

It also said a region-wide system of collecting data with regard to adverse incidents and near misses should be developed.

(IT)