Huge increase in maternity compensation payouts

Compensation payouts for maternity incidents in the hospital group in which Savita Halappanavar died soared in the year a settlement was reached with her husband Praveen, new figures show.

The size of the settlement made in the case taken by Mr Halappanavar has never been revealed, but the figures show Saolta hospital group paid out €17.5 million for 20 maternity compensation claims in 2016. This compares to just €2.1 million paid on 13 claims in 2015.

Ms Halappanavar died in University Hospital Galway, part of the Saolta group, in 2012 following a series of major care errors. Her husband’s case was settled last year for what was described as a “substantial” sum.

Overall, the amount the State pays out in compensation for incidents in maternity units has increased elevenfold in a decade, while the number of claims is nine times higher, according to the figures provided by Minister for Health Simon Harris.

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State Claims Agency

Last year, the State Claims Agency (SCA) made compensation payments totalling €64 million in respect of 99 cases involving the 19 maternity units across the country.

This compares to just €4 million paid out in respect of 11 claims in 2007, the figures provided to the Minister by the SCA show. Over this period, the average payout has doubled, to €644,000 in 2016.

Most of the payments by value relate to problems that arose in birth procedures, but compensation has also been paid in respect of medication errors, hospital-acquired infections and other issues.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher had asked for details of payments made in respect of individual maternity units, but the agency provided aggregated information based on hospital groups.

Identifying patients

Providing information on a hospital level could have the “unfortunate and unintended” consequence of causing the agency to breach data protection legislation by identifying patients making claims or hospital employees, it claimed.

The SCA also claimed this information could have a detrimental effect on the “financially sensitive management” of its claims portfolio. It expressed concerns that the provision of hospital-by-hospital claims data could result in “non-contextualised league tables, giving the public a wrong impression of any individual hospital’s patient quality and safety risk”.

Last year, the agency paid out €16.9 million in respect of claims for maternity units in the Ireland East Hospital Group, and €19.25 million for claims involving the South/South West and UL Midwest hospital groups.

Total maternity-related payments over the past decade came to over €333 million.