The purpose of the NHS Litigation Authority is to provide a source of funds to pay compensation and legal costs to sufferers of negligence at the hands of NHS practitioners.
However, a recent significant rise in compensation claims for medical negligence has now forced the Department of Health to bail out the NHS Litigation Authority to the tune of 185-million. The bailout payment is intended to cover the costs of compensation claims and legal fees incurred between January and April 2012.
Figures released by the Government indicate that if all compensation cases brought against the NHS were lost, the maximum possible figure for negligence payouts has soared over the past ten years. In 2001 the figure was 5.31-million; by 2011 it had risen to 16.85-billion. Similarly, annual payouts over the same period rose from 277-million in 2000-01 to almost 1-billion in 2010-11. The past five years have also seen a significant rise in the number of clinical negligence claims, from 5,697 to 8,655 per year.
The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley blamed the rise in payouts on a significant increase in claims lodged on a “no-win, no-fee” basis, instigated by so-called “claimant farmers” (otherwise known as “ambulance chasers”) who encourage NHS patients to sue for negligence but without the need to find the cost of their own legal fees. Under the present system, any legal expenses incurred on behalf of the successful claimant are claimed from the defendant in addition to the eventual compensation payout.
The Department for Health and the Ministry of Justice have joined forces in support of radical proposals which are intended to clamp down on claimant farmers. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice has indicated that claimant farmers and claimant lawyers are making far too much money under the present system. According to Tom Fothergill (financial director of the NHS Litigation Authority), a significant premium has been added to costs by the presence of no-win, no fee lawyers, and also by a recent legal ruling which has resulted in the wages of claimants’ carers being linked to earnings instead of to inflation.
The Government is now pressing ahead with plans for radical reform of the entire system for civil litigation funding and costs in England and Wales, after vowing to restore common sense to the system. The proposed changes will result in claimants’ legal expenses being payable out of their own damages, rather than these costs being borne by the defendant.
Find out more about claiming medical negligence compensation.
