Lawford Kidd's Blog

The NHS Litigation Reform report, published by The Westminster Health and Social Care Committee earlier this year, suggested implementing a no-fault medical negligence compensation scheme in England.

The purpose of no-fault compensation schemes is that there is no requirement for negligence to be proven before compensation is paid out for injuries. The cause of the negligence must still be put forward, although proving individual fault is not required.

This type of model had previously been considered in Scotland - firstly in 2009, and then again in 2011 when a "no-blame" compensation scheme based on the Swedish model was discussed. It was proposed that compensation (up to the value of £100,000) for harm that could have been avoided due to medical treatment would be allowed, however, treatment received from independent contractors such as private hospitals, GPs, dentists, pharmacists etc would not be allowed within this proposed scheme.

A Freedom of Information request (FOI) showed that between the years of 2010 and 2020, the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust settled 10 stillbirth clinical negligence claims. Around 2,500 babies are stillborn every year, with 75 of those said to be attributed to clinical negligence. An average of £29,000 was paid out per case, as well as £286,000 in legal fees overall. Data also discovered that Trusts across the country are paying £29.8 milllion in damages and £34.8 million in legal fees over 758 medical negligence cases.

The family of Lilian Hugill have been awarded compensation after the 84-year-old died while under the care of the staff at York Hospital, reports the Daily Telegraph.

NHS England is missing opportunities to learn from patient deaths and too many families are not being included or listened to when an investigation happens, according to a recent review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The UK Government has recently published details of new measures to improve the safety of maternity care in the NHS in England, which include maternity safety funding and publishing maternity ratings.

NHS trusts will be given resources to improve their approach to maternity safety, including an £8 million fund for maternity safety training, with at least £40,000 available to each NHS trust in England. In addition, the new measures will make sure lessons are learned from mistakes and shared openly and transparently across the NHS.

Rapid Resolution and Redress Scheme

The Government has also announced its intention to consult on a new rapid resolution and redress (RRR) scheme, which it says could investigate and learn lessons from more than 500 incidents a year. In cases where harm was avoidable, families would be offered access to financial support without having to go through a formal legal process.