Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in how many medical negligence claims against the NHS which were settled in 2016-2017 legal proceedings were issued; and in how many such claims damage payments were made.
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence claims brought against the National Health Service in England on behalf of organisations who are members of its risk pooling schemes, and has provided the following information:
The following table shows the number of settled clinical negligence claims 2016-17:
Where legal proceedings were issued | 4,251 |
Where legal proceedings were issued and damages paid | 3,311 |
Which were taken to trial | 83 |
Which were taken to trial and damages were awarded | 43 |
The number of claims that were taken to trial in 2016-17 has been interpreted as the number of claims where the trial took place in 2016-17. This is different from the number in the table above which were settled in 2016-17 following a trial, since some of those claims may have gone to trial in an earlier year, although broadly the two groups overlap. This data is as follows:
Clinical negligence claims taken to trial in 2016/17 | 78 |
Clinical negligence claims taken to trial in 2016/17 where damages were awarded | 36 |