Clinical/Social Care Negligence Cases in Northern Ireland (2015/16)

Date published: 16 November 2016

The statistical bulletin presents information on clinical/social care negligence cases that were open at any stage during the year ending 31st March 2016.

Key Points

The key findings presented in the statistics release are listed below.

Payments in 2015/16:

During the last two years, the amount paid on clinical/social care negligence cases decreased by £14.8 million (35.8%), from £41.4 million in 2014/15 to £26.6 million in 2015/16 (Table 1).

Payments to Date:

• During 2015/16, 3,613 clinical/social care negligence cases were open at any stage, 455 (14.4%) more than in 2011/12 (3,158) (Table 3).
• In 2015/16, 686 new cases were opened, 639 cases were closed, whilst 2,768 cases remained open and 206 cases had been settled at 31st March 2016 (Figure 3, Tables 4 - 8).
• The average clinical/social care negligence case, open in 2015/16, had been open for 2.6 years (Figure 5).
• Over half (55.7%, 2,012) of all clinical/social care negligence cases referred to the following four specialties; ‘Accident & Emergency’ (631), ‘Obstetrics’ (614), ‘General Surgery’ (390) and ‘Trauma and Orthopaedics’ (377) (Table 13).
• A total of £95.2 million has been paid to date on the 3,613 clinical/social care negligence cases which were open at any stage during 2015/16. Of which, £71.1 million (74.7%) has been awarded in damages and £24.1 million (25.3%) paid out in legal costs (defence and plaintiff) (Table 14).
• Over half (53.5%, £50.9m) of the amount paid out on clinical/social care negligence cases open at any stage during 2015/16 referred to the ‘Obstetrics’ speciality, of which, over four fifths (80.3%, £40.9m) had been paid on damages (Table 15).

The information release is published on the Departmental website.