Comment / NHSLA responds as claims fears mount

The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) has launched a risk management initiative to minimise costs and improve patient safety after payment increases under the clinical negligence scheme for trusts (CNST) continued to rise in the current year.

NHSLA chief executive Steve Walker said CNST payments increased to more than £600m in 2008/09, a rise of 34% on the previous year. The trend in the current financial year remained on an upward trajectory.

In a letter to the service, he added that in 2008/09 the number of clinical claims received by the NHSLA rose by more than 11%. Again, this trend had continued into 2009/10.

The authority’s response is a risk management scheme that aims to help trusts learn from their own claims. Mr Walker said the information would be shared, where appropriate, with the wider NHS in the hope of reducing the number and severity of incidents that give rise to claims.

Although clinical incidents would be notified to the National Patient Safety Agency, the NHSLA would use its claims management process to provide a more thorough review and follow-up.

Solicitors will now prepare a risk management report on all new CNST claims, in addition to the claims report they provide.

Mr Walker said that in most cases the NHSLA would take no further action on receipt of the reports, although in some cases it would write to the organisation seeking confirmation that suitable action had been taken.

At the start of each financial year, the NHSLA will send a risk management report on organisations’ completed and outstanding claims, and ask what action has been taken in response to the incidents.

If the response is not satisfactory, the NHSLA will take escalating action, including taking up the matter directly with an organisation’s chief executive.

‘If the chief executive is unable to assure the NHSLA that the organisation is addressing the issues, further action will be taken. This may include an additional full assessment against the NHSLA standards, or referral to the Care Quality Commission,’ he said.

He added the NHSLA would publish an annual report on the lessons learned from claims.