Hospital payouts up by 50 per cent

The crippling cost of compensation claims against NHS hospitals is exposed today.

An investigation by the Evening Standard reveals that payouts to patients soared by almost 50 per cent in London last year. The amount given out by many hospitals trebled or quadrupled within 12 months.

One leading hospital awarded six times the previous year's figure, while another top London hospital shelled out an extraordinary ?5.5million over two years to settle a single claim.

The scale of the payments - which totalled more than ?32 million across 22 hospitals in the capital last year, will reignite debate over the rise of socalled compensation culture in Britain. The cash comes out of the NHS budget - eating into resources desperately needed for the front line.

Today there were questions about why a long-awaited government shake-up designed to reduce medical negligence bills has still not been put into action. Details of compensation payments by London hospitals were given exclusively to the Evening Standard by the NHS Litigation Authority, which handles claims against the health service.

The amount paid out by individual trusts is regarded as confidential, but 23 London hospitals agreed to let the NHSLA give the Standard their details.

The figures reveal that they awarded ?32.5 million to patients to settle medical negligence claims in the financial

year ending April this year, compared with ?24.4 million in 2003.

The hospital hardest hit was St Mary's Paddington. The NHSLA paid out ?4,643,382 on its behalf last year - ?4.1 million of which was the second installment of a ?5.5 million payout on a single case. No details are being released about the case, which is described as "obstetric". But the huge figure suggests that it involved a baby being disabled at birth. Claims against Lewisham Hospital quadrupled from just over ?1million in 2002-2003 to more than ?4 million last year.

Compensation paid on behalf of the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead also quadrupled, from a relatively modest ?370,697 to more than ?1.5 million.

Today the NHSLA played down the rises - insisting the total compensation given for hospitals had not changed. Finance Director Tom Fothergill said: "Our overall annual spend is not rising."-He said that some medical negligencecases take years to process, distorting the statistics. But critics fear negligence claims are spiralling, and demanded government action. Plans to streamline the system for claims, first announced 18 months ago, have yet to be put into action.

Lib-Dem health spokesman Paul Burstow said: "A no-fault compensation scheme would tackle the blame culture and help NHS staff focus on patient safety. The Government should stop dragging its feet. They came up with proposals for change a year ago, and nothing has happened since. While ministers dither, the claims culture continues to wreck havoc."

All hospitals pay an annual fee to the Clinical Negligence Scheme For Trusts, to insure them against patient compensation claims.