Consumer support groups urge urgent action after PAC report highlights harm and rising negligence costs
Consumer support organizations have called for urgent government action following the publication of a new report by the Public Accounts Committee examining the rising costs of clinical negligence.
Responding to the findings, Matthew Maxwell Scott, Executive Director of the Association of Consumer Support Organizations, said the report correctly focused attention on the underlying causes of negligence rather than legal costs alone.
He stated that every instance of clinical negligence represents a person harmed, families left traumatized and lives permanently altered. According to Scott, reducing negligence would improve patient outcomes while ensuring that more NHS funding is directed towards frontline care rather than compensation and litigation.
He highlighted maternity services as an area of particular concern, noting that 14 NHS trusts are currently under investigation due to poor safety and systemic failures. He described these cases as among the most serious examples of ongoing problems within the healthcare system.
Scott said that claimants and their families consistently report that their primary objective is to obtain clear answers from the NHS about what went wrong. He added that many families also seek reassurance that lessons have been learned to prevent similar harm to others in the future, rather than focusing solely on financial compensation.
Following the PAC report and a recent National Audit Office review, Scott called on the Department of Health and Social Care to publish outstanding reviews by David Lock KC and the department itself. He said these documents should be released as soon as possible to enable a full and transparent discussion about the causes of negligence and how its impact on patients, healthcare professionals and public finances can be reduced.
While acknowledging that legal costs account for only a small proportion of overall clinical negligence expenditure, Scott said there were opportunities to manage those costs without restricting access to justice or compromising patient safety. He pointed to existing work on alternative dispute resolution, including joint settlement meetings, being undertaken by claimant and defendant firms. He said positive outcomes from these approaches should be shared more widely across the sector.
Scott also referred to fixed recoverable costs in lower-value clinical negligence cases, noting that this has been stated government policy for more than a decade. Despite multiple changes in political leadership, he said no meaningful progress had been made.
He concluded by urging the Department of Health and Social Care to reach a clear decision on whether to proceed with fixed costs and, if so, to transfer responsibility to the Ministry of Justice or an independent body to avoid conflicts of interest arising from its dual role overseeing patient care and public spending.