This report just in from BBC News:
In the past two years, more than £50m has been paid out following legal claims against the NHS in Essex.
This figure includes compensation to patients as well as legal costs.
Many of these claims stem from what are called ‘Serious Untoward Incidents’ (SUI).
This is a term the NHS uses when something goes wrong and can apply to a wide range of events, including when a patient has been harmed.
The BBC has obtained a dossier of such incidents using the Freedom of Information Act, showing the SUI notifications from five local Primary Care Trusts covering the period from January 2009 to May 2010.
Read the full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/essex/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9389000/9389757.stm
There are links to more details of some cases for each of Essex’s 5 primary care trusts on the BBC site.
The more we move to a culture of suing, the more public money that is wasted rather than used for improving health services.
