§ Sir Michael McNair-WilsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what formula is being used by the assessors deciding on levels of compensation for patients in the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital who received overdoses of radiation; what considerations will he taken into account; and whether the payments are a de facto acceptance of negligence.
§ Mr. FreemanIt is for Exeter health authority to decide the levels of compensation in the light of its own independent advice on the clinical effects of the overdose of radiation on individual patients.
The health authority has accepted that the treatment of patients on the miscalibrated machine amounted to a breach of its duty of care towards those patients.
§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the implications for health care services within the district of the obligation to make606W compensation payments to those damaged by excessive radiation at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital funded from within their resources.
§ Mr. FreemanAll health authorities are expected to budget for contingencies. It is too soon to judge the likely provision to meet the costs of compensation arising from the radiation incident at Exeter. No adverse effect on health care services is expected.