Clinical/Social Care Negligence Cases in Northern Ireland (2017/18)

Date published: 23 October 2018

The statistical bulletin presents information on clinical/social care negligence cases that were open at any stage during the year ending 31st March 2018.

Key points

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

Payments in 2017/18:

• During the last four years, the amount paid on clinical/social care negligence cases decreased by £5.7 million (13.8%), from £41.4 million in 2014/15 to £35.7 million in 2017/18 (Table 1).
• Of the £35.7 million paid on clinical/social care negligence cases in 2017/18, almost three quarters (73.8%, £26.3m) was paid in damages, £6.1 million (17.0%) in plaintiff costs and £3.3 million (9.1%) in defence costs (Figure 2, Table 2).
• Payments to Date:
• During 2017/18, 3,734 clinical/social care negligence cases were open at any stage, 357 (10.6%) more than in 2013/14 (3,377) (Table 3).
• In 2017/18, 744 new cases were opened, 522 cases were closed, whilst 2,945 cases remained open and 267 cases had been settled at 31st March 2018 (Figure 5, Tables 4 - 8).
• Clinical/social care negligence cases open at any stage in 2017/18, had been open on average for 2.6 years, similar to 2016/17 (2.6 years) (Figure 11).
• Over half (55.3%, 2,066) of all clinical/social care negligence cases related to four specialties; ‘Obstetrics’ (674), ‘Accident & Emergency’ (629), ‘General Surgery’ (397) and ‘Trauma and Orthopaedics’ (366) (Table 14).
• A total of £116.7 million has been paid to date on the 3,734 clinical/social care negligence cases which were open at any stage during 2017/18. Over three quarters (76.2%, £88.9m) has been awarded in damages and £27.8 million (23.8%) paid out in legal costs (defence and plaintiff) (Table 15).
• Over half (53.7%, £62.7m) of the amount paid out on clinical/social care negligence cases open at any stage during 2017/18 related to the ‘Obstetrics’ speciality, of which, four fifths (80.3%, £50.3m) had been paid in damages (Table 16).

The information release is published on the Departmental website.