€122 million in compensation has been paid out by University of Limerick Hospital Group over the past ten years to patients who suffered medical negligence in hospitals across the Midwest.
Figures released to Aontú from the Department of Health through the State Claims Agency show that a total of €2.4 billion in compensation was paid out across the health service over the past decade.
The figure does not include legal fees which amounted to about 20% of the total claims value. (€480m)
As an acknowledgement that the sums are significantly out of control the government have approved the establishment of a new Interdepartmental Working Group to examine the rising cost of health-related claims and consider mechanisms to reduce the costs of claims.
Aontú PRO for the Midwest, Eric Nelligan said: “These figures are astronomical and worryingly, they are growing almost exponentially year on year. Our nurses and doctors are burnt out trying to manage a system starved of real investment and reform whilst swathes of their colleagues leave the health service having given all they can. The result is a system collapsing in on itself, understaffed and without any intervention from the Government despite figures like these draining away any support for front line services”.
The data shows €70 million in compensation was paid in 2014 across the whole of the state, it had risen to €157 million by 2015, €200 in 2017 and €350 million a year in 2022. Locally in the mid-west claims were at €5 million in 2014 and peaked at €35 million in 2018, in 2022 they were €10 million.
Mr Nelligan continued: “There is an enormous economic cost to the State and the tax-payer here, but there is also a personal cost to people who have been harmed. We have listened to so many families tell their stories linked to clear examples of medical negligence, last January Aontú co-ordinated a hospital day of action at 17 locations all over the Island of Ireland. Behind all of these pay-outs is a citizen of this country that has been damaged by the dysfunction in the health service. Our health service is on its knees, with waiting lists sky high, and staff in our hospitals overworked like never before. Unfortunately, this week’s budget does little to tackle the dysfunction in the health service. It is more about fixing the Government’s poll figures than the country’s public services”.
“This is an expansionary budget that will reduce funding in public services in real terms by 2% by 2026. This budget will do little about getting more Gardaí, Doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers into the system. The budget is peppered with “one off” lump sums. “One Off” lump sums do nothing to address the underlying cause of poverty and public service dysfunction in the country”.
“We need to invest in front line staff, bed capacity and improve conditions in our hospitals if we want to reduce the mistake rate and harm caused to patients within. We also need accountability at the top for these mistakes and the costs incurred. Aontú believes that when it comes to top civil servants like Robert Watt in the Department of Health, on close to €300,000 a year, there has to be a cost to senior management when it comes to the damage being done to patients and the obscene level of pay-outs”, concluded Mr Nelligan.
The figures were released following a parliamentary question by Peadar Tóibín to the Minister for Health.
The response was:
The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive.
The SCA has provided this information on compensation payments which includes both general damages and special damages. The payments are in respect of both the clinical indemnity scheme as well as the public liability scheme.
- In 2013 the amount paid was €85 million
- In 2014 the amount paid was €70 million
- In 2015 the amount paid was €157 million
- In 2016 the amount paid was €153 million
- In 2017 the amount paid was €200 million
- In 2018 the amount paid was €230 million
- In 2019 the amount paid was €280 million
- In 2020 the amount paid was €275 million
- In 2021 the amount paid was €346 million
- In 2022 the amount paid was €352 million
- In 2023, the amount paid in the year to date to end of August 2023 was €247 million.
The total amount paid in compensation damages from 2013 to end August 2023 is €2.4 billion.
The figures provided are for compensation only and exclude legal fees. Over the period, legal fees were about 20% of the total claims amount.
Government, in January 2023, approved the establishment of an Interdepartmental Working Group to examine the rising cost of health-related claims and consider mechanisms to reduce costs, which is chaired independently by Dr. Rhona Mahony.