Negligence Costs Dept Of Health £116m

The cost of settling health and social care negligence cases in Northern Ireland has cost the Department of Health £116m over the past five years, according to a new report.

Many patients in Northern Ireland are suffering from largely preventable harm through services provided by Health and Social Care Trusts, the report said.

Michaela Boyle, Chair of The Public Accounts Committee, which released the report, said that between July 2004 and March 2012 there were 2,084 serious adverse incidents reported in the health and social care service.

813 of these involved the death of a patient or service user, including 488 which related to suicides.

"While not all of the serious adverse incidents reported were as a direct result of the care these patients received, the overall figure is still shocking and suggests that the standards of care being delivered by health and social care bodies require continued scrutiny and improvement," Ms Boyle said.

The report found that some nurses still have reluctance about raising patient safety issues. It notes that there is a strong link between learning from adverse incidents and an organisation's openness to discussing such incidents.

It also recommends that both the HSC and the Department should do more to "embed a widespread culture of safety in which honest reporting is encouraged and in which genuine learning can take place".

The report also shows that patients find the complaints and claims procedures so confusing and difficult to navigate that they have to seek legal remedies.

Ms Boyle noted: "Patients and clients with valid claims against the health and social care services need to understand their rights and have access to a range of remedies including an explanation, an apology, remedial treatment and, where justified, financial compensation. The Committee was concerned at the lack of a viable alternative to litigation.

"Formal alternative dispute resolution procedures, including mediation, are absent from the current system. These could be developed to assist both the HSC and patients in reaching non-financial remedies and reduce stress to those dissatisfied with their care and treatment."

The report found that the Department of Health "appears reluctant" to undertake research to estimate the likely level and cost of harm from adverse incidents.

Ms Boyle concluded: "Despite the introduction of a number of safety policies and initiatives, there is no reliable evidence to show that people receiving health and social care are any safer today than they were a decade ago. The Department still cannot reliably track the progress of the health and social care services in improving safety for patients or in holding service providers accountable. This is a fundamental issue that the Department needs to address to increase public confidence in the service."

(IT/CD)