what's the problem?

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7437.460

BMJ 2004;328:460 (21 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7437.460

Commentary

what's the problem?

Bertie Leigh, senior partner

Hempsons Solicitors, London WC2N 6NJ mamsl@hempsons.co.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Brian Capstick's views will come as a surprise to people whosuppose that negligence litigation is out of control or a largeburden to the NHS. As he shows, it costs well under 1% of turnover,and most of that is the cost of caring for birth injured children,a bill that ought to be met under any system. Given that thereare 850 000 adverse events causing harm, 6000 claims seems modest.

The volume of claims is also falling. Making Amends noted thatit had fallen in two successive years from a peak of 8000. TheLegal Services Commission's new evidence to the chief medicalofficer's inquiry is that last year they issued only 6000 newcertificates and closed 8000 files. This compares with 18 000new certificates at the peak in 1991. Since 55% of certificatesdo not result in writs being issued, it is likely that only. . . [Full text of this article]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?