{"id":2026,"date":"2012-01-26T00:02:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T00:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2022-04-11T21:33:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:33:44","slug":"nhs-claims-dashboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/nhs-claims-dashboard\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS Claims Dashboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time for a couple more NHS-related dashboards, this time looking at claims made against NHS organisations. There are three main schemes that are run – Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts<\/a> (CNST), Risk Pooling Scheme for Trusts<\/a> (RPST) and the Existing Liabilities Scheme<\/a> (ELS). CNST and ELS relate to clinical negligence claims post- and pre-1st April 1995 respectively, while RPST covers non-clinical claims. All three schemes fall under the umbrella of the NHS Litigation Authority<\/a> (NHSLA).<\/p>\n

Handily, the NHSLA makes available data<\/a> relating to the number and value of claims, released each year as “Factsheet 5<\/em>” in the “NHSLA Factsheets<\/em>” section (doesn’t work in Safari). Factsheet 3<\/a><\/em> gives graphs by specialty, although not raw numbers it seems, and includes the possibly surprising fact that nearly 40% of claims last year were abandoned. I’ve combined the high-level raw data from 2003\/04 to 2010\/11 into one large dataset and then performed some extra manipulation to sanitise it a little (see the end of this post if you want the details).<\/p>\n

The number of claims has escalated in recent years, as has the amount of money being paid out<\/a>, \u00a0and hopefully the charts below show these trends in an easily-digestible format. One word of warning though: think carefully about the numbers involved. The second dashboard shows the amount paid out in total across all schemes, which last reached \u00a3860 million<\/strong> pounds, and the figures being circulated [edit: link no longer working, unfortunately] for potential liability across all current cases top \u00a316 billion<\/strong>. Numerous publications have looked into<\/a> the reasons behind the changes, ranging from increased numbers of claims in times of recession, to increased – or non-existant – upper limits to claim values. This isn’t my area of expertise, so I’ll leave it to others to interpret the stats accordingly.<\/p>\n

Speaking of stats, the NHSLA themselves put some good information on the front worksheet of each “factsheet” that they publish, and I would encourage anyone digging into these figures to read that blurb too. Note that, as discussed above, I have amended the data in the interests of collating it into a single dataset, so whilst I accept responsibility for any errors and\/or omissions resulting from that process, the raw data provided by the NHSLA \u00a0should always be taken as the gold standard for anyone drawing major conclusions from the information presented here.<\/p>\n

The first dashboard looks at the numbers of claims received, including a comparison of whether a PCT with a larger population has more claims, while the second focuses on the cost of these claims overall, and the damages paid out.<\/p>\n