£44m paid out for hospital blunders

THE Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, has seen a staggering £44million paid out to patients in damages over hospital blunders.

According to figures in a national newspaper, there were 11 claims at the trust in 15 years — making it the third largest cash total.

Topping the table was Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust where 16 claims saw a total bill of £62m.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed a total of 748 payouts at trusts across the country totalling £2.4billion.

The payouts were made through the Clinical Negligence Scheme, part of the NHS Litigation Authority, and involved blunders including mistakes during childbirth, patients left paralysed, blinded or suffering psychological damage.

A spokesman for the Pennine Acute Trust, said the vast majority of the thousands of patients treated at the trust experienced good quality, safe and effective healthcare.

He said: “Patient safety remains our top priority. We take all complaints seriously and regret any occurrence of any incident or any case that gives rise to a claim or complaint by a patient and the distress this can cuase. We always look into any such incident or the circumstances surrounding any complaint where there may be lessons to be learned in the way care and treatment is provided. Although from time to time things do go wrong, in this Trust only one in two thousand patient episodes gives rise to complaint.

"Given that we run five hospitals and are the largest trust in the North-West with a budget of over half a billion pounds, it is not surprising we are towards the top end of such lists.

“However, all cases are dealt with by the NHS Litigation Authority, not by the individual NHS Trusts.”