This week we saw confirmation in the media of something
that those of us with market-friendly sexual charisma have been envisioning for
ages - that the NHS has been hugely criticised for the bad
health of its finances (including, for local readers, our own N + N
hospital which has been placed
in financial special measures).
By now everyone knows that the future of the NHS is very precarious - thanks to a number of factors (which I blogged about here). But what I didn't know until reading some stats by one of the Adam Smith Institute think tank members is just how much clinical negligence there is, and how shockingly costly it is proving to be. Apparently just in the 2011-2012 financial year alone, the total cost for the NHS in clinical negligence claims exceeded £1 billion, with a further £50+ million in non-medical compensation claims. However much does this add up to if we factored in every year, even for just the past decade? Several billion pounds I'd suggest.
By now everyone knows that the future of the NHS is very precarious - thanks to a number of factors (which I blogged about here). But what I didn't know until reading some stats by one of the Adam Smith Institute think tank members is just how much clinical negligence there is, and how shockingly costly it is proving to be. Apparently just in the 2011-2012 financial year alone, the total cost for the NHS in clinical negligence claims exceeded £1 billion, with a further £50+ million in non-medical compensation claims. However much does this add up to if we factored in every year, even for just the past decade? Several billion pounds I'd suggest.
There is clearly a
whole scope of work to be done in terms of accountability - whether it is
incentivising the public to be in charge of finances that match actions to
consequences, or improving the internal spending structure (like the case of Hitchingbrooke
hospital where significant savings were made by spending more wisely on
things like stationery in a competitive market).
