Over £1million paid out for 58 medical negligence cases

There were fewer negligence cases in the Western Trust area in 2009/10 than anywhere else in Northern Ireland.

But clinical negligence costs still came to over a million pounds. WHSCT paid out 676,793 in damages and compensation; 109,590 in defence costs; and 344,830 in plaintiff costs.

Health Minister revealed the details in response to a query tabled at the Stormont Assembly.

Last month the Sentinel reported how taxpayers forked out 7.7m to pay legal costs incurred as a result of 400 claims against the WHSCT and its legacy trusts between 2004 and 2009.

The huge bill was generated by 344 medical negligence legal actions (5,043,000), 55 public liability legal actions (112,000) and third party legal fees (2,500,000).

A total of 204,184 has been paid out in legal fees for claims that have been going on between five and 10 years and 49,843 has been paid out in legal fees for claims that have been ongoing for over a decade.