Government and NHS fail to take ‘any meaningful steps’ to tackle spiralling medical negligence costs
The government and NHS England have been harshly criticized by MPs for failing to take “any meaningful action” to reduce the rising costs of clinical negligence in England despite two decades of warnings.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) described this “lack of action” as “particularly disappointing” given widespread budget cuts and redundancies in the health service.
It comes as figures reveal total liabilities arising from medical negligence have quadrupled to £60bn since 2006-07, while annual settlement costs have more than tripled to £3.6bn.
These alarming figures paint a picture of “a system that seeks to protect its patients from preventable harm,” the PAC said.
Its new report stressed that although the committee and its predecessors “have examined the issue of clinical negligence on numerous occasions” the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) “cannot provide assurance that it has taken any meaningful action to date to address clinical negligence”.
The report also added that DHSC “will not be committing to any new remediation activities” until the ongoing clinical negligence review is completed; There is no expected completion date for this.
Elsewhere, the PAC said the NHS was “not doing enough to tackle the underlying causes of harm to patients” and that NHS England and the DHSC’s approach to patient safety “lacked co-ordination”.
MPs also raised concerns about the lack of data on the factors behind clinical negligence.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the PAC, said: “Clinical negligence is the second largest financial liability across government, but for our committee it represents a completely different issue to other major items such as nuclear decommissioning or retirement.
“This is an inflated accounting of deep suffering.
“Each case can represent untold devastation for the victims involved, and the overall picture shows a system trying to protect its patients from preventable harm.
“In fact, the rising costs of such requests are diverting resources away from the front-line care that so desperately needs them.
“So it feels impossible to accept that, despite two decades of warnings, we are still worlds away from government or the NHS dealing with the underlying causes of this problem.”
Sir Geoffrey added that “tragic failures” in maternity care were one of the drivers of this trend and “one of the many problems that we can see the government failing to solve within this system”.
In 2024-25, claims for birth brain injury cost over £1.5bn; The total cost of claims for pediatric failures reached £325 million.
Earlier this week, Baroness Valerie Amos called for evidence for the National Maternity and Newborn Inquiry, which will examine failings at 12 trusts.
The PAC has asked the DHSC to publish the Amos Review within two months, as well as a response setting out how it plans to reduce harms and claims in maternity care.
It is also seeking from the Government a plan to tackle clinical negligence, a national framework to improve patient safety with clear annual targets and a national system for sharing data between NHS trusts.
Sir Geoffrey said: “Whatever happens next, the government has been in an unacceptable stagnation of clinical negligence for most of my political life, while the figures continue to rise.
“For those who suffer from the consequences of this system, the time for change is long overdue.
“We hope that our recommendations and the recommendations of future reviews will help the government and the NHS meet their duty to prevent future harm.”
A DHSC spokesman said the Government had “inherited an NHS that has failed too many people”.
“We took swift action to strengthen patient safety, overhauling the Care Quality Commission, introducing the Martha Rule and Jess Rule so patients can receive a new clinical review, and introducing hospital league tables to promote recovery,” they added.
“We have also introduced new maternity safety measures, are carrying out an urgent investigation into the failures and are setting up a taskforce to ensure every mother can trust NHS care once again.
“For the first time in years, we have put the NHS back on solid financial footing, achieving the 2.7% productivity target, reducing waste and enabling patients to be seen faster as waiting lists are reduced.
“In the Ten Year Health Plan we asked David Lock KC to undertake a review to tackle the rising costs of clinical negligence and improve the system so every penny can be spent on patient care.
“We know there is more to do, but we are determined to make sure the NHS is the safest system in the world.”
An NHS spokesman said staff were “working incredibly hard to keep patients safe” but “there is more to do to tackle safety issues and improve care for many families”.
