Claims are taken seriously – Shropshire health chiefs
Clinical negligence payouts relate to a small number of cases but they are taken very seriously, health bosses have insisted.
New figures show that £9.78m was paid out on behalf of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust for clinical negligence claims in 2016/17.
Meanwhile at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the figure was £1.81m during the same period.
Health chiefs say they accept that mistakes occasionally happen but they are scrutinised so that lessons can be learned for the future.
Julia Clarke, director of corporate governance at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) – which runs Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said: “Providing safe and kind care for the 500,000 people of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Mid Wales who we serve is our absolute priority.
“Every year, we carry out more than 600,000 treatments and procedures and, unfortunately, sometimes things do go wrong.
"When this happens, the most important thing is that we, as a trust, learn from any mistakes.
"For the patient, it is important that every avenue is open to them to hold us to account, and that they are compensated when appropriate.
“These payments relate to a relatively small number of cases and the vast majority of these will also have been the subject of internal investigations.
"Our doctors, nurses and other health professionals are incredibly caring and compassionate, but occasionally mistakes happen.
"The important thing is that we learn from these mistakes.”
A spokesman from The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the specialist hospital near Oswestry, said it had a duty to investigate all claims of clinical negligence, adding: "We received a small number of claims from patients last year.
"All of these were taken very seriously to ensure we learn lessons for the future.”
NHS Resolution funds the total cost of clinical negligence claims dating from April 1995 on behalf of health trusts.
It comes after SaTH was fined more than £300,000 at Stafford Crown Court last month for failing to ensure the safety of five elderly patients who suffered falls and later died.
It followed a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive after five patients died following falls at PRH or RSH in 2011 and 2012.
