Government considers legal reforms to resolve high cost of clinical negligence claims

The UK government is considering reforms to the legal process for resolving clinical negligence claims after concluding that making care safer will not be enough to curb the burgeoning costs of compensation.

Dianne Kennard, who heads a cross government working group on how to tackle the rising costs, told a Westminster Forum seminar that there was a “strong case for legal reform.”

Kennard, who works on litigation policy for the Department of Health and Social Care, said the current rise in costs was “unsustainable.” Payouts from the clinical negligence scheme for NHS trusts, which covers hospital …