Many medical negligence claims could be helped if not for an out dated and crippling NHS system, which punishes doctors for mistakes without encouraging them to learn, a leading doctor has warned.
Dr Robert Hendry, the Medical Protection Society's (MPS) head of medical services, in Scotland has issued this statement following the rise in clinical negligence claims in the UK.
He states that the amount of cases where a doctor was disciplined due to
negligence had increased by 270 per cent in the last decade.
The professional went on to explain that the extended process that has to be completed when something goes wrong, convinces others to not report any errors they may commit just to avoid the politics.
Punishmen keeping doctors quiet
"A doctor who went through a relatively minor mistake was still, eight months later, being taken through some kind of disciplinary process to punish him. Any of his fellow trainees who would see that happening would think, 'If anything goes wrong the last thing I'm going to do is tell anyone about it', he said".
He added: "It is going to be a blight on his record and doesn't really address anything from the patient's point of view. That flies in the face of the idea of a culture of openness. It flies in the face of the NHS learning from problems. There's still this need to punish people when things go wrong even when it's not really their fault."
The doctor went on to reiterate that doctors still need to be made accountable for any errors they may do but the current process is not helpful to either side, instead it would need to be done in a considered and appropriate way.
Only a few months ago it was revealed that hospitals in Yorkshire have been found to cost the taxpayer 83 million in the last year through negligence claims.
It's through these types of figures that many have requesting a change on how these types of claims are handled.
'Cumbersome and expensive'
A spokesperson for the British Medical Association stated: "The current system is cumbersome and expensive and takes money away from direct patient care. Without action to address this problem the alternative is that doctors will increasingly practise defensive medicine and hold back on some treatments for fear of legal action. This would not be in the best interests of the patient,"
They added: "It is important that patients have a right to make their complaints and, where appropriate, receive compensation."
The plan for future compensation claims would mean that importance would be attributed to a no liability culture complete with a limit to the size of damages.
John Pickering, the medical negligence
lawyer, reminded the public when he said: "Standards are not falling, but there are practices which should be improved. There are incidents which occur from time to time which should not happen.
"Above all, they need to learn more from their mistakes. There is nothing more distressing for those of us who work with injured people than seeing the same mistakes being repeated."
If you have been affected by
medical negligence speak to one of our
injury lawyers to find if you could receive compensation.
