THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) paid out more than €81 million on negligence claims last year, while the figure was €47 million in 2009.
The chairman of the Oireachtas health committee Jerry Buttimer (FG) asked Minister for Health James Reilly and the HSE to reveal the total amount paid out on foot of negligence claims in each of the last three years, and the associated legal fees incurred.
Mr Buttimer was provided with a figure of €47,562,429 for 2009, rising to €79,283,418 the following year and to €81,203,568 in 2011.
The figures represent the total amount paid on negligence claims by the HSE in the last three years via the State Claims Agency.
“The figure of €81 million is worrying. The figures are startling and they reveal an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed,” Mr Buttimer said.
The associated legal fees which were incurred by the State Claims Agency were included in the total figures, but when separated out amount to €17.2 million in 2009, €23.9 million in 2010 and €32.1 million in 2011.
The HSE has been substantially self-insured since 2009. It carries its own insurance for areas of risk including personal injury to employees of the State, personal injury to members of the public, including injury resulting from medical negligence, and third-party property damage, including claims arising from road collisions.
The claims against the HSE that arise as a result of these categories of risk are managed by the State Claims Agency.
In response to Mr Buttimer’s query as to what steps were being taken to reduce legal fees, the reply from Mr Reilly and the HSE stated “a number of initiatives to control and reduce defence legal costs” had been put in place.
An in-house legal team manages a proportion of the claims portfolio, thereby appropriately limiting the use of external legal services, according to the reply.
All fees for external legal services provided to the State Claims Agency are subject to the Government-imposed 8 per cent reduction in professional fees introduced in March 2009.
In respect of plaintiff legal costs, the State Claims Agency has negotiated legal costs’ savings on plaintiffs’ solicitors fees of €5.6 million in 2011.
Meanwhile, the total amount paid on negligence claims by the HSE’s insurers in the last three years, including legal fees which are not separately analysed, amounted to €27 million in 2009, €28 million in 2010 and €32 million last year.
These claims payments relate substantially to payments made by former insurers of the HSE as cases settle.
