BARNSLEY Hospital has paid out more than £40m in negligence payments over the last five years, new figures show.
The hospital paid out £7.5m in 2016/17, and just under £10m the year before.
It ranks 60th out of 258 hospitals in England.
The data also shows the cost of medical blunders dating back more than two decades has risen over the last three years to more than £100,000.
Over the last five years, the hospital has paid out £474,465 for historical mistakes made before April 1995. Almost all of that money - 99 per cent of it - was paid out in relation to maternity services.
The NHS in England has a separate government-funded scheme to deal with negligence claims for events before April 1995.
Last year in Barnsley it paid out more than £101,000 for mistakes made before 1995 and more than £94,000 the year before. In 2014/15 it paid out £92,600.
In England, the body NHS Resolution, which was formerly the NHS Litigation Authority, provides NHS trusts with medical negligence indemnity cover through two schemes. The Existing Liabilities Scheme covers any incidents which happened before April 1995, and is funded by the Department of Health. The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts covers incidents after April 1995. It is funded by NHS Resolution, by charging NHS trusts a premium based on their expected payouts.
There are several reasons why money is still being paid for historical cases. Legal battles can take many years, and new claims are still being received for decades-old incidents. It can also be years before patients or families realise thet may have a claim for compensation. In other cases, assessments about a child’s life-long care needs can only be made when they are older.
Historically, cerebral palsy claims were often paid as a lump sum but families are now more likely to receive annual payments throughout the child’s life.
The costs are so large because mistakes made during or shortly after childbirth can leave the infant with brain damage and lifelong dependancy on care, for which the NHS trusts become liable. Claims for avoidable cerebral palsy are “undoubtedly the most expensive” of maternity claims and can even exceed £20m per claim, according to a recent report by NHS Resolution. The life expectancy of children with cerebral palsy is increasing and care costs are also going up.
The Department of Health and NHS Resolution have put forward several measures to cut medical negligence costs in England.
This includes a plan to cap the fees that legal firms can recoup from the taxpayer when they win low-value cases, which critics say does not tackle the root causes of the claims, a plan to resolve more medical negligence cases before they go to court, a proposal to introduce a voluntary alternative compensation scheme for infants who have suffered avoidable brain injury at birth and cash incentives for trusts which take steps to make maternity services safer.
A spokesman for the hospital said: “Barnsley Hospital is aware of the rising costs relating to historical clinical negligence claims which is reflected in the NHSR figures highlighted to us.
“We recognise the importance of compensation for people when things go wrong but we are determined to ensure where this happens we learn and take action to reduce future risk. Our pay-outs, in comparison with trusts nationwide, are relatively low however we believe we can always learn and improve our practices.
“We have in recent years put into place strict patient safety processes to learn from incidents.”
