Following the publication today of a public accounts committee report into NHS financial sustainability, the Medical Defence Union (MDU) said the NHS should enact long promised reforms aimed at controlling the costs of clinical negligence cases.

The MDU was one of the few healthcare organisations to submit written evidence to the committee.

Dr Mike Devlin, MDU head of professional standards and liaison, said:

"We are pleased to see this renewed focus on reversing the NHS’s financial deficit, which continues to worsen. We agree with the committee's findings that the NHS must be put on a financially sustainable footing if it is to deal with the multiple challenges it currently faces.

"Key to that must be to introduce legal reforms to the current clinical negligence system to protect NHS finances from further erosion. Not only will this help the system to cope with the challenges of caring for an ageing population and tackling waiting lists, but it will also help the NHS to focus more money on recruiting and retaining more staff and improve their wellbeing.

"We are acutely aware that the current regime for clinical negligence claims along with workplace pressures has a profound impact on the welfare of doctors and dentists with many cutting back their hours or retiring early.

"It is worrying that 44% of respondents to an earlier MDU survey told us they are planning to reduce their hours because of these pressures and 28% are planning to leave practice or retire, while 43% are reprioritising their workloads. Seven in ten (69%) of those responding said they feel negative about the future of the NHS.

"These sentiments are very real and will make it difficult for the NHS to implement the committee’s recommendation to identify the actions and initiatives needed to achieve unprecedented increases in productivity."

The MDU has suggested a package of measures to reform the clinical negligence system and to support the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce, including:

the introduction of fixed recoverable costs in lower value cases valued up to £25,000 with a view to extending to claims of higher value - the previous government believed such a scheme would result in a saving of approximately £454 million over a ten-year period
a change in the law that currently allows claims to be valued on the basis care will be provided in the private sector, rather than the NHS
continued funding for programmes and services that offer support for doctors when they feel at risk of, or experience, burnout.

MDU responds to government report on NHS finances

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