Clinical negligence has cost the Department of Health £360 million over the last decade – £99,000 per day, DUP MLA reveals

The DUP health spokesperson says it is another area where Stormont’s health minister Mike Nesbitt needs to drive down costs if he is “to invest instead in more assessments, procedures and diagnostics”.

The Department of Health says while negligence cases and contributing costs will always be a feature of any healthcare system “the priority remains to minimise errors and improve patient safety”.

Mrs Dodds uncovered the information from the health minister in an Assembly question. The Upper Bann MLA said: “Firstly, these people were compensated because there has been an error on the part of the Health Service. We should be careful that when looking at the eyewatering sums of money, we remember that the claimants may have suffered some horrendous wrong.

“We are also mindful that only about three quarters of these sums reach the victims of negligence with approximately 25% expended on legal costs.

“At any point in time there tend to be about 4,000 negligence cases open in Northern Ireland with four or five hundred new cases added each year. The average time to resolve a negligence case in Northern Ireland is more than three years. The specialties most frequently claimed against are obstetrics, emergency departments, neurology and general surgery, with obstetrics being responsible for approximately 60% of the costs.

“There will be further payouts from negligence cases in independent sector facilities too. This £360 million sum is taxpayers' money that has been paid out as the result of negligence. We should be doing everything possible to promote high quality safe care and minimise these losses. This represents another area where the Minister and his Department need to be seeking to drive down costs to be able to invest instead in more assessments, procedures and diagnostics.”

The department says “prevention, early intervention, and patient safety to improve better outcomes for everyone are key priorities” for the health minister.