4 October 2024
Alix Walker, Head of Clinical Negligence looks at the recent statistics on the increase in NHS safety incidents.
An NHS safety incident is an unintended or unexpected incident in an NHS setting.
The NHS is expected to report on any safety incident to ensure that safe practices are in place and that new practices are implemented so that lessons can be learnt, and patient safety continues to improve.
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) recently released information to its lawyers confirming that between 2012/3 and 2022/3 there was a 30% rise in the number of patient safety incidents reported to have resulted in either severe harm or death (England only).
This increase was 6 times higher than the actual rise in claims submitted to the NHS, with the rise in claims over the same period being only 5%.
In 2022/23 there were more than 14,000 patient safety incidents which resulted in severe harm or death (an average of 39 per day) and additionally more than 745,000 incidents resulting in some degree of harm.
With figures like this it would be reasonable to expect NHS claims to have increased in line but over the same period the NHS received around 13,500 clinical negligence claims.
Put simply, the increase in safety incidents has not resulted in an increase in claims.
People can be put off by the thought of pursuing a claim against the NHS because it’s the NHS, and because they are aware of the strains on the system due to backlogs, staffing issues and industrial action.
Not everything an individual considers as something bad results in a claim, you have to be able to prove that there was a breach of duty, that the breach caused or contributed to an adverse outcome and that compensation would be proportionate to the cost of brining the claim.
Things like being unhappy with the way a nurse spoke to you would not amount to negligence and many initial enquiries do not result in a file being opened. When a file is opened and records are reviewed there may be a reasonable explanation as to what happened that can be explained. Where there is sufficient evidence in the records to proceed medical input is obtained from an independent expert who will consider whether there is a basis for a claim.
If you are concerned that you may have been impacted by something that has happened to you whilst in the care of the NHS then our dedicated clinical negligence team will be here to help you.
You can contact us on 0344 854 7000.
