Hospitals paid out close to €1bn in compensation claims over four years, new figures show.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly released the figures to Cork East TD Seán Sherlock in response to a parliamentary question.
The country’s seven hospital groups have paid between €215m and €282m in damages each year since 2018.
They have already collectively paid out €11.5m in the first six weeks of this year alone.
At almost €1bn, the compensation bill is ten times what it would cost the State to open 19 critical care beds this year.
The biggest awards were in the South/Southwest Hospital Group, where the damages bill almost trebled in four years.
It paid €38m in damages claims in 2018 and €57m in 2019. The bill soared to €78m in 2020 and to €114m last year — higher than any other hospital group.
Its bill was driven by a sharp increase in damages awarded in clinical care cases at the group’s hospitals in that period. They rose from €34m in 2018 to €75m in 2020 and €109m in 2021.
The hospital group covers 10 hospitals in the southern region, including the main university hospitals in Cork, Kerry, and Waterford.
The country’s seven hospital groups paid damages totaling €215m in 2018, €219m in 2019, €261m in 2020 and €282m last year.
The €977m compensation tab covers damages paid to people who took personal injury claims against hospitals but does not include the legal fees.
Damages from medical negligence and personal injury cases have soared in the past decade. Several High Court settlements reached last year broke records in terms of the size of payouts.
One of the biggest awards was €30m to a child who has cerebral palsy as a result of injuries he suffered during his birth at Portiuncula University Hospital in Galway. It was the largest damages award in a birth injury case in the State’s history.
In response to concerns over rising costs, the Government has set up an expert group to review the management of clinical negligence claims.
The figures were taken from the National Incident Management System database, managed by the State Claims Agency. The damages awards were broken into three categories.
Clinical cases relating to medical care accounted for the bulk of the damages paid.
The second category was ‘exposure to physical, biological and chemical hazards, which includes infections acquired in hospital.
In the north-west, the Saolta Hospital Group paid €5.1m in damages in this category last year, the highest of any hospital group, followed by the University of Limerick Hospital Group, which paid €1.1m.
The third category of compensation awards was ‘psychological hazards, exposure to chemical hazards, exposure to biological hazards and crashes/collisions. The South/Southwest Hospital Group paid €4.7m in damages in this category in 2021, followed by the RCSI Group (covering Dublin and the northeast), which paid €4.3m in damages.
Mr. Sherlock said the amount of damages paid out by hospitals was “extraordinary”.
“It’s vital we maintain the principle that where catastrophic and life-changing circumstances occur, damages reflect the needs of an injured party,” Mr. Sherlock said. “However, we need to examine further the breakdown of costs to the State, particularly where they relate to physical, biological, and chemical hazards. “All the taxpayer wants is better visibility on the breakdown of costs to the Exchequer.”
News credit: Independent.ie