Taxpayers pay £7.7m for 400 medical claims

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.

The settlement costs were at their highest in 2008/9 as a result of a spike in medical negligence claims with 99 claims being made.

Also lawyers earned 1m in legal fees during 2008/9 alone.

The information was disclosed by the Health Minister Michael McGimpsey in response to a query by East Londonderry MLA George Robinson, who asked for details of legal actions taken against each Health and Social Care Trust.

The costs included legal fees, awards and claims settled out of court.

Furthermore, figures for the period between April 2008 and March 2009 alone showed 99 claims for medical negligence in the Western Trust cost the taxpayer 1,275,000 in legal settlements and 1,000,000 in third party legal fees.

The Health Minister said the 2008/9 figures represent 0.61 per cent of all the HSC Trusts’ total operating costs for 2008/2009.

The settlement figures were payments made to claimants by the Trust. The third party figures are legal costs incurred by, or on behalf of, the claimant which were reimbursed by the Trust.

The Minister advised the figure also includes certain legal costs associated with the Trust’s defence of the case. It should be noted that the costs associated with a claim may not be paid out in the same financial year in which the claim is received.