Shropshire hospitals' negligence payouts double to £7 million

Successful claims against Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust in 2015/16 saw more than £7 million paid out – compared to just under £3 million the previous year.

However, the payouts do not necessarily relate to claims launched during the same period and could be from historic incidents.

Once legal costs are added, total payouts came to £11,085,465 last year. This was up from £5,293,302 the previous year.

The trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, pays an annual insurance premium to the NHS Litigation Authority, which then settles all claims made against the trust.

In 2015/16, the trust made contributions to cover them for clinical negligence totalling £10,065,345.

Now, hospital bosses insist patient safety is paramount and say they will make sure lessons are learnt.

Julia Clarke, director of corporate governance at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "The safety of our patients is paramount and we strive to provide the highest standards possible.

"Unfortunately, sometimes this is not the case and successful claims are made against the trust.

"When these happen we aim to ensure we learn and put the necessary steps in place to prevent adverse incidents happening in the future.

"The figures published by the NHS Litigation Authority do not reflect current care as many claims take a considerable time to settle and are therefore historic.

"The increase in figures may not necessarily reflect the claims submitted that year.

"A large portion of the claims that come through the trust have already been through our internal patient safety mechanisms and our complaints process which both focus on learning lessons to prevent such incidents happening again.

"Any new claims that are made are shared with our care groups as well, and any expert reports are also shared so that they can be discussed at our clinical governance meetings and any individual or wider lessons can be learnt."

Ian Adams, spokesman for the NHS Litigation Authority, said it can take several years for a clinical negligence claim to be settled.

He said: "We provide indemnity cover for legal claims against the NHS, including clinical negligence claims.

"The nature of resolving clinical negligence claims means that in some cases it can take several years to fully ascertain the extent of any damages which might be payable based on a successful claim - for example where the harm to a patient needs to be fully assessed over a number of years.

"The NHSLA scheme only collects in-year what it expects to pay out the following year."

The figures come as it was revealed the trust was more than £5 million in the red – and were expected to be £8 million in debt by April.

It had agreed a £5.9m deficit with health bosses for 2016/17 but latest figures show the trust is already £5.1m in the red after five months of the financial year, from April to August.

The trust's finance director Neil Nisbet is predicting an forecast overspend by the end of the financial year of £8.429m.