NHS compensation fund gets £185m bailout as claims rise by 30% in a year
BMJ 2012; 344 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e411 (Published 16 January 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e411
- Clare Dyer
- 1BMJ
England’s health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has been forced to provide a £185m (€220m; $285m) bailout to the NHS compensation fund until April after a huge rise in negligence compensation payments and legal costs.
Mr Lansley has pumped the extra money into the NHS Litigation Authority, which is mainly financed by NHS trusts, after it threatened to run short of funds.
The rise in payouts, which have trebled over the past decade to more than £860m last year, has been blamed on a boom in “no win, no fee” cases—which entitle claimants’ lawyers to extra “success fees” if they win—and a …
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