It has sparked heated debate about how best to meet the needs of patients affected by clinical negligence while minimising the legal bill for the NHS―might a ‘no fault’ system work better, for example?
Writing in this week’s NLJ, Hugh Johnson and Miriam Spencer, of Stewarts, weigh up the current system of litigating against the NHS and ask―could there be a better way of doing this? Along the way, they highlight that the legal bill is actually reducing year on year.
They write: ‘Not only are the litigation costs reducing, but the number of new claims reported each year has remained reasonably consistent. Indeed, it may be argued that with a seven-year average of 11,200 new claims per year, the claims volume is very low. In contrast, health charity The King’s Fund now estimates that the NHS makes 1.5m patient interventions a day.’
