NHS medical negligence persisting in England ‘despite 24 years of warnings’ | NHS

Medical negligence in the NHS continues to harm and kill patients because governments and health service leaders failed to act on 24 years of warnings, MPs have said.

In a scathing report published on Friday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) blasts the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England for letting the cost of errors climb to £3.6 billion a year.

Between them, the two bodies have taken “no significant action” to address the problem in England, despite four PAC reports dating back to 2002 advising them to do so, the committee said.

“It seems impossible to accept that, despite two decades of warnings, we still seem worlds removed from government or [the] The NHS is tackling the underlying causes of this problem,” said Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the influential cross-party committee.

He cited the “unacceptable stagnation” surrounding maternity care as an example of inaction that continually harms patients and costs taxpayers ever-increasing sums of money. Reports have emerged since 2015 of maternity scandals in Morecambe Bay, East Kent, as well as Shrewsbury and Telford. Another investigation continues into birth care in Nottingham.

Last year, serious concerns about maternity care in the NHS in England prompted Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to order an inquiry, led by Valerie Amos, into maternity care.

“The PAC finds that, while government liability for clinical negligence has quadrupled over 20 years (£60 billion in 2024-25), the [Department of Health and Social Care] is unable to show that no meaningful action has been taken to address this problem and the NHS has not done enough to tackle the underlying causes of patient harm,” he said.

Government liability for clinical negligence has quadrupled in real terms since 2006-07 and reached a record level of £60 billion in 2024-25, the report said.

“This is a growing depiction of deep suffering,” Clifton-Brown said. “Each case can represent indescribable devastation for the victims involved and the overall picture is one of a system struggling to protect its patients from preventable harm. »

Evidence gathered by the PAC during its investigation showed the NHS was “overwhelmed” by the large number of recommendations various bodies had made to improve patient safety. Several safety watchdogs, official inquiries and coroners have regularly suggested changes.

The PAC noted in the report that:

• The £3.6 billion cost of medical negligence is diverting funding from frontline NHS care.

• Lawsuits involving brain-damaged babies can take up to 12 years to resolve.

• Some patients sue because hospitals refuse to tell them what went wrong with their care.

“These staggering costs linked to clinical negligence are a horrific symptom of an NHS that has been neglected and mismanaged for too long,” said Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrats’ health spokeswoman.

While the Conservatives were pushing the NHS “to the brink”, Labor was not doing enough to improve it, Morgan said. Her decision to remove barriers around dedicated funding for improving maternity care was “absurd”, she added.

The PAC echoed the findings of several previous reports in urging the NHS to be much more open with patients and their loved ones when errors have occurred, and to apologize sooner, in order to reduce both claims and costs. The NHS also needs to overhaul its “confusing and insensitive” complaints system to produce a more compassionate system, which would also save money, he added.

A report released on Thursday on global patient safety ranks the UK 21st out of 38 OECD countries studied by experts from Imperial College London and Patient Safety Watch.

Globally, deaths of people with serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are “a major concern” and too many people are dying as a result of medical treatment. The UK has performed poorly when it comes to neonatal deaths and patients suffering complications from surgery.

A DHSC spokesperson said: “This government inherited an NHS that was failing too many people.

“We have taken swift action to strengthen patient safety – overhauling the Care Quality Commission, rolling out Martha and Jess’s rules so patients can benefit from a new clinical review, and introducing hospital rankings to drive improvement.

“We have also introduced new safety measures at the maternity ward, are carrying out an urgent investigation into the failings and are setting up a task force so every mother can have confidence in NHS care again.

“We know there is still much to do, but we are determined to make the NHS the safest in the world.”