Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson, Jo-Anne Dobson MLA, has said that the Health Service needs to place a greater emphasis on avoiding lapses in patient safety if it is ever to get on top of the hundreds of new cases of medical negligence that are opening every year. The Upper Bann MLA was commenting after the Department of Health revealed that there were 686 new cases of clinical/social negligence opened last year.

Jo-Anne Dobson MLA said:

“Patients understandably expect to receive safe, sustainable and quality care at their time of need. It is a credit to our health staff that hundreds of thousands of people each year receive such care from the local health service, even under the growing pressures, and many thousands more receive impeccable care in social settings.

“I am concerned however that despite cases of medical negligence regularly receiving significant media and professional attention, as well as several policy initiatives from the Health Department to try to reduce them, that there were so many reported cases last year.

“Whilst these sorts of cases can have a major financial cost, with tens of millions of ill-afforded health service funding being spent each year on compensation and legal fees, the human cost can actually be much more significant. Mistakes made in a medical setting can have life-changing consequences for the patient and their family so it is essential that such mistakes are avoided at all costs.

“Last year there were 3,613 clinical/social care negligence cases open at any stage. Unfortunately, I believe some of these could have been closed much earlier if the health service had admitted liability earlier in the cases it knew it was at fault, rather than unreasonably dragging the process out.”