Indemnity provider calls for urgent reform of negligence payouts

The spiralling cost of clinical negligence claims in England will become unsustainable unless the government reforms the system as a matter of urgency, a leading doctors’ indemnity organisation has argued at the launch of a new campaign.1

The Medical Protection Society (MPS) points to statistics showing that the NHS in England will be paying out £2.6bn (€3bn; $3.3bn) a year by 2022 if spending continues to rise at the rate it has done over the past five years. Over that period payouts went up by 72%, and current annual spending equates to the cost of training 6500 new doctors.2

But the spending spiral has been accelerated by a new rule that came into effect in …