Clinical Negligence Claims and Medico-legal costs

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,
Please can you provide the following information in regard to Clinical Negligence Claims and Medico-legal costs in your organisation:

1. How much did your Trust spend on its Legal Department per annum in the following years:

2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

2. How many whole time equivalent members of staff did you have in your Legal Department (please organise by pay grade) in the following years:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

3. What was the total number of allegations or attempted clinical negligence claims against your Trust per annum for the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

4. What was the total number of cases and enquiries handled by your Trust’s legal department per annum in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

5. What was the total number of successful clinical negligence claims against your Trust in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

6. What was the median and mean time (in days) from complaint to closure of each case/enquiry handled by your Trust’s legal department in 2015 and 2016. Please only supply data for cases which did not result in a successful claim.

7. What was the median and mean time (in days) from complaint to closure of each successful claim against your Trust’s legal department in 2015 and 2016.

8. What was the total sum paid out in successful and settled clinical negligence claims in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

9. What was the total sum paid out for legal costs (not damages) for completed clinical negligence claims in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

10. What was the total sum paid out in completed clinical negligence claims in the Neurosurgery Department in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

11. What was the total sum paid out in completed clinical negligence claims in the Spinal Surgery Department (if separate from Neurosurgery) in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

12. What was the total sum paid out in completed clinical negligence claims in the Cardiology Department in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

13. What was the total sum paid out in completed clinical negligence claims in the Oncology Department in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

14. What was the total sum paid out in completed clinical negligence claims in the Trauma & Orthopaedic Department in the following years:

Incident Year:
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

15. What proportion of completed clinical negligence claims in the Spinal Surgery and Neurosurgery departments were attributed to the following in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017:
a)Delay in diagnosis
b)Delay in treatment
c)Poor communication or documentation
d)Poor clinical decision making

16. Does your Trust use a digital or online referral system in any of its acute medical of surgical specialties and when was it implemented?

17. Who is the Vendor of this referral system?

Yours faithfully,

James Guyton Lee

Ref: 1718.359

Re: FOI Request - Acknowledgement of Request

Dear Sir / Madam

Thank you for your request for information. Your request was received on 7 December 2017 and we are dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Under the FOI Act the Trust has a statutory responsibility to respond to your request within 20 working days therefore you should expect a formal response no later than 8 January 2018.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable. If this is the case a fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be required to pay before we will proceed to deal with your request.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact us. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

FOI team
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Dear James

Thank you for your request. Part of the information has already been collated but due to administrative error, we had not sought clarification for some of the questions that you had asked. We apologise for the lateness of seeking clarification and the response.

We should advise that we do not hold details of clinical negligence claims for individual Trust departments and so will not be able to answer Q10-15.

Could you please clarify for Q6, if you mean the median time from making a legal claim (not complaint) to closure of the case.

Could you please clarify for Q5, your criteria of a successful clinical negligence claim. Do you mean one where clinical negligence has been proved or are there some other criteria.

Could you please clarify for Q1, whether you are only referring to wages in the Legal Department.

Thank you.

Best wishes

FOI team

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Dear James

 

The Trust forwarded you the email below in April, requesting clarification
of your questions 1, 5 and 6 and advising that we would not be able to
answer questions 10-15. 

 

We have not heard from you regarding the clarifications and so we are
closing this FOI request and providing the answers to other questions. 

 

Best wishes

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

 

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