‘Not fit for purpose’ NHS compensation needs radical overhaul

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A report by the Health and Social Care Committee says the system, which costs more than £2billion a year, is “slow, adversarial, stressful and often bitter”.

And it concludes the focus needs to shift from blaming individual medics to one where system-wide failures are recognised.

The report sets out measures to make payments to patients faster and reduce costs.

Last year the NHS compensation bill was £2.17billion. The committee predicts this will rise to £4.6billion in the next decade – with a quarter going to lawyers.

Chair Jeremy Hunt said: “We’re urging the Government to adopt our recommendations to reduce both the number of tragedies and the soaring costs to the NHS.

“We must move away from a culture of blame to one that puts the prevention of future harms at its core.”

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