The Department of Health today published statistics collected from Health & Social Care (HSC) Trusts, Agencies and Legacy Health and Social Services (HSS) Boards on all clinical / social care negligence cases in the north of Ireland open during the year ending 31 March 2019.
The statistical bulletin presents information on clinical / social care negligence cases that were open at any stage during the year ending 31 March 2019.
Key Points
The key findings presented in the statistics release are listed below.
Payments in 2018/19:
- During 2018/19, £29.2 million was paid on clinical / social care negligence cases in Northern Ireland (Tables 1 & 2).
- Of the £29.2 million paid on clinical / social care negligence cases in 2018/19, almost three quarters (72.7%, £21.2m) was paid in damages, £5.8 million (19.9%) in plaintiff costs and £2.1 million (7.4%) in defence costs (Figure 2, Table 2).
- During the last five years, the amount paid on clinical / social care negligence cases decreased by £12.1 million (29.4%), from £41.4 million in 2014/15 to £29.2 million in 2018/19 (Table 1).
Payments to Date:
- During 2018/19, 3,995 clinical / social care negligence cases were open at any stage, 394 (10.9%) more than in 2014/15 (3,601) (Table 3).
- In 2018/19, 704 new cases were opened, 789 cases were closed, whilst 2,995 cases remained open and 211 cases had been settled at 31 March 2019 (Figure 5, Tables 4 - 8).
- Clinical / social care negligence cases open at any stage in 2018/19, had been open on average for 2.8 years, slightly longer than 2017/18 (2.6 years) (Figure 11).
- Over half (54.2%, 2,164) of cases open in 2018/19, related to four specialties; ‘Obstetrics’ (712), ‘Accident & Emergency’ (670), ‘General Surgery’ (413) and ‘Trauma and Orthopaedics’ (369) (Table 14).
A total of £138.3 million has been paid to date on the 3,995 clinical / social care negligence cases which were open at any stage during 2018/19. Over three quarters (76.9%, £106.3m) had been paid in damages and £32.0 million (23.1%) paid out in legal costs (defence and plaintiff) (Table 15).
Over half (56.2%, £77.7m) of the amount paid out on clinical / social care negligence cases open at any stage during 2018/19 related to the ‘Obstetrics’ speciality, of which, four fifths (80.7%, £62.7m) had been paid in damages (Table 16).
Notes to editors:
- The information detailed in this publication is derived from the Departmental CN1 and CN1a statistical returns provided by HSC Trusts, Agencies and Legacy HSS Boards.
- All information has been validated with Health & Social Care Trusts, and incorporates all returns and amendments received up to 19 October 2019.
- The statistics are published on the Departmental website.
Further information on Clinical / Social Care Negligence statistics is available from:
Hospital Information Branch
Department of Health
Annexe 2, Castle Buildings
Stormont, Belfast
BT4 3SQ
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