Fair compensation

Billions of pounds are haemorrhaging out of the NHS in clinical negligence damages awards.

This is putting an unsustainable strain on the NHS and affects us all - as medical professionals, as patients and as tax payers.

We are taking action - join us

The MDU is campaigning for legal reforms to ensure that in future, compensation payments to patients will remain fair, but also be proportionate and affordable.

Our aims include:

• reform of how compensation awards are calculated
• caps on the level of damages awarded for future care
• damages for loss of earnings capped at three times the national average salary per year.

Read more about the campaign

MDU calls for immunity from pandemic litigation

Litigation related to exceptional circumstances would be a complicated drain on a workforce and system already on its knees after the pandemic. In a BMJ head-to-head debate, our chief executive Dr Christine Tomkins says a solution for the avalanche of claims facing the NHS must be found. 

Read the story on the BMJ website

Impact on UK and US doctors of pandemic

Many US states have given medical providers liability protection yet our health service remains under threat from litigation. In this Times article (subscription required), Dr James Swift of OMSNIC in the USA and Dr Christine Tomkins explain that healthcare professionals making enormous sacrifices during the pandemic deserve meaningful legal protection from COVID-19-related lawsuits.

Read the Times article