NHS pays out record £84m in compensation after patients suffer botched care

A record number of hospital patients received compensation following botched care and surgery at the hands of private contractors who won NHS contracts, statistics show

A record number of hospital patients were paid compensation last year after they suffered botched care and surgery at the hands of private contractors who won NHS contracts.

Victims suffered needless pain, and additional surgeries, ended up having limbs amputated and even died after their NHS hospital paid for them to be treated by a private healthcare provider.

Many NHS Trusts have entered contracts with private health firms in a bid to trim waiting lists, and patients often assume the care they receive outside the NHS will be superior.

However, the figures from NHS Resolution show the compensation paid to NHS patients who have suffered after their care was shifted into the private sector has doubled in the last five years.

The statistics raise fears about the quality of private healthcare provision when firms take NHS contracts to provide a fixed number of relatively routine operations such as hip replacements or varicose vein removals. In total, over the last five years, the NHS has settled 1,063 cases from NHS patients who said they suffered from negligent care or surgery in the private sector.

These cases landed the NHS with a compensation bill of £83.6million, and when legal fees are added to the total it is closer to £175million. Critics say using private providers is a piecemeal dismantling of the health service and the contract payments and the compensation bill would be better spent inside the NHS.

The payout cheques have been made to patients who died, ended up having limbs amputated, had bones broken and well as suffering from needless pain. Others suffered from burns, nerve damage, eye problems, vocal cord damage, hospital infections, bedsores and even cancer because of poor care from these private firms.

Because the NHS was ultimately responsible it is the Health Service rather than the private contractor that then has to fork out the compensation cash when things go wrong, although it can try to claim the money back from the provider.

In the last year, there were a total of 236 successful claims with the damages hitting a record £23.3million. Of these claims, 90 related to people who said that because of the poor private care they ended up having to go through the trauma of another operation. They were paid £7.7million in total, meaning the average paid out was almost £90,000.

The most recent financial year also saw £1.7m paid to 38 patients who suffered damage and unnecessary pain because of botched care, £381,000 to seven people who suffered needless fractures and £281,000 to the families of five patients who sued after their loved one was killed by the botched care. Figures released by the NHS Resolution show the compensation to NHS patients for botched private sector care has risen over the last five years.

During the same time period, the amount of NHS money spent with private contractors has soared to a record high of £11.5billion.

Co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public and retired consultant paediatrician, Dr Tony O’Sullivan, said: "These data provide further evidence that it is folly and unsafe to divert tens of thousands of patients and their funding from the NHS to private facilities. There, the priority is a conveyor belt mentality to get as many ‘low-risk’ patients through the system as quickly as possible. Most often no high dependency or intensive care is available when things go wrong.

"There is minimal overnight medical care for inpatients. For emergencies requiring transfer to the NHS, there have been serious consequences when ambulance transfer from what ostensibly is a 'safe hospital setting' is delayed due to the pressures on the service. We urge the Government to invest in building back safe, well staffed and resourced NHS care for NHS patients and to end the diversion of funding to profit-taking companies, further undermining the NHS’ finance."

An NHS England spokesperson said: “The majority of medical operations in England are delivered by NHS hospitals, but we expect all care - whether it’s provided by the NHS or private providers - to be safe and of a high quality.

“It is vital incidents are reported to support learning and improvements to care by helping identify new and under-recognised risks at a national level, so action can be taken to keep patients safe.”