§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) in the last five years how many awards there have been for compensation from national health service hospitals and trusts because of negligence with radiotherapy exposure;
(2) which regional health authorities have set up pooling schemes to share the burden of large compensation awards between health districts in the region;
(3) if he will list regional health authorities in rank order according to (a) the number of negligence awards made against them and (b) the total amount of the negligence awards in the last year for which figures are available;
(4) in 1991, which district health authorities had awards against them totalling more than (a) £1 million and (b) £2 million for negligent death or damage to their patients;
(5) what was the total amount of compensation for negligence awards made against all district health authorities in each of the last five years, including awards made against national health service doctors insured by the medical defence organisations;
(6) how much extra money has been allocated to the regional health authorities to meet the cost of negligence awards after the introduction of crown indemnity on 1 January 1990.
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§ Mr. Dorrell[holding answer 3 March 1992]: Information is not currently held centrally about the numbers, the type of damage and the level of settlements arising in connection with medical negligence which would enable the Department to single out specialties or to rank regional health authorities in order of payments. The Department in consultation with NHS Management, is reviewing arrangements for the central collection and publication of improved figures from the NHS with regard to the number of claims for medical negligence, contingent liability and settlements.
Between the introduction of NHS indemnity on 1 January 1990 and March 1991 it is estimated that English health authorities spent about £60 million on costs associated with legal claims for negligence against doctors and dentists in NHS hospitals. This includes payments of damages to plaintiffs, legal and other fees, and in-house expenses. Information is not available prior to January 1990 when these liabilities were borne by the medical defence organisations.
The Government provided substantial extra resources to the NHS which should help health authorities to meet the costs of medical negligence. In addition the NHS has access to funds set up by the medical defence organisations as part of the agreements when these liabilities were passed to the NHS. Between January 1990 and March 1991 payments of some £9 million were authorised from these medical defence organisation funds. Most regional health authorities operate pooling or other arrangements to assist district health authorities with the cost of large settlements and are keeping these under review in the light of experience.