Doctors facing a £1m+ claim surge
By Robin Stride
A surge in £1m+ claims against self-employed doctors has prompted a renewed plea for a fairer and more affordable compensation system.
New figures given to Independent Practitioner Today also brought a warning that if nothing is done, then rising indemnity costs could force more specialists out of private practice.
According to the Medical Defence Union (MDU), multi-million-pound damages in clinical negligence claims are no longer rare.
Dr Mike Devlin
The defence body’s Dr Mike Devlin said: ‘Some of the largest compensation payments we have made have been on behalf of MDU members in independent practice.
‘For example, our highest payment to date was £9.2m plus legal costs to compensate a patient rendered tetraplegic following spinal surgery.
‘Another example was £6.2m in damages with £3m in legal costs to a female patient who suffered nerve damage after plastic surgery.
‘In the first claim, the damages were so high because of the cost of providing future care and accommodation for a young person with a long life expectancy. In the second, the claimant’s loss of earnings made up most of the award.’
The MDU said multi-million-pound compensation claims against consultants in private practice, and GPs, had risen three-fold over the last decade.
Last year, it settled 12 compensation claims for more than £1m on behalf of consultant and GP members. In the last three years, it has paid over £100m to compensate patients and pay legal costs in 36 negligence claims exceeding £1m.
The MDU said payments were no reflection on clinical standards, which remain high, but rather a result of a combination of economic pressure ‘and an outdated legal system meaning compensation costs are calculated on the basis of private, rather than NHS care’.
By contrast, in 2005, just four settled claims exceeded the £1m mark and, in 1995, the union gave only one patient £1m compensation.
Dr Devlin, head of professional standards and liaison, warned that clinical negligence claims inflation was doubling every seven years. A claim costing £9m if settled today was likely to cost at least £18m by 2022.
Organisations indemnifying doctors in the independent sector had ‘no option’ but to reflect the cost of these claims in their subscriptions.
He said another factor was the different risks faced by individual specialties in independent practice: ‘For example, surgeons in certain specialties like plastic and orthopaedics are relatively more likely to be sued than ophthalmologists and general surgeons.
‘Not only is this unsustainable for doctors, but more widely it affects all taxpayers who are funding public liabilities such as the NHS Litigation Authority’s, which were estimated to be £28.3bn in April 2015.
‘It is possible that if awards were to continue to rise unchecked, practice in the independent sector might decline because of the rising costs of indemnity. This could result in more patients seeking treatment in the NHS who might otherwise have sought private care, resulting in more pressure on an already-stretched public service.’
The MDU is calling for legal reform so patients are compensated appropriately but in a fairer and more affordable way. You can find out more at www.themdu.com/faircomp.
- See ‘Check your indemnity’