Phebus Editions
NHS PAYMENTS to families of patients who died due to botched care totaled a record £ 75million last year.
Shock figures obtained by The Sun on Sunday show 969 deaths in hospitals.
2
2
Successful claims against the NHS in England for a death have risen 31% in five years while the compensation bill has climbed 66% from £ 45million.
NHS resolution statistics reveal a catalog of errors leading to patient deaths.
These included 29 cases where there was a medication error, 23 where the patient was discharged too early, 24 where there was no action due to abnormal test results. , and 50 where they received the wrong treatment.
But the main causes of these deaths since 2015/2016 were 261 cases related to a failure or delay in treating a patient and 158 cases where there was a similar lack or delay in diagnosis.
The average claim payout by NHS Resolution is £ 77,300, but some claims, where a deceased person would have had a long working life ahead of them, have been settled for around £ 1million.
In 2012, an article in the British Medical Journal calculated that 13% of hospital deaths were preventable because they came from staff errors.
If this figure is correct, it means that nearly 12,000 preventable deaths occur in hospitals each year – more than 30 each day.
Researchers believed there were some issues with junior doctors who were not adequately supervised by experienced consultants.
Joyce Robins, Co-Director of Patient Concern, said: “It’s just awful.
“People go to the hospital to get better, they shouldn’t be killed for poor care.”
An NHS spokesperson said: “Our patient safety strategy includes measures to reduce medication errors.”