Medical Mishaps. Time for a new approach? A review of current practice for the settlement of clinical claims for medical errors.

Within the context of clinical negligence, often described as ‘medical mishaps’ or ‘medical error(s)’, the latest estimate of the cost to the NHS is about £22.7 billion (NHS Litigation Authority, July 2013), It is expected that this cost will rise to 28.6 billion (Gibb, F, August 2015). The MPS, expressed concerns of escalating costs (Medical Protection Society, 2011). Study Reviews current practice by analysing randomly selected court cases, time frame to resolve / reach a settlement and quantifying legal costs. Furthermore, review, how medical mishaps are redressed in Denmark, Norway and New Zealand., where a no-fault scheme operates, eligibility criteria, differ, between various existing no-fault schemes (Brahams, D., 1988a), and (Erichsen, M., 2001). The Scottish Government Review Group (2011), recommended a no-fault compensation scheme, emphasising “removal of a fault-based approach offers the opportunity to collect valuable data on medical error, as well as to engage in systems learning to facilitate error prevention and therefore enhance patient safety” (Frank Stephen, Angela Melville and Tammy Krause, 2012). In Florida and Virginia USA, a no-fault scheme has been operated since 1980s onwards for birth related neurological injury. A ‘no-fault’ compensation approach for medical mishaps used in other countries may help develop an alternative model for England and Wales. Further, such an approach may save considerable resources for the NHS. Overall, in terms of contribution to knowledge, this study seeks to contribute to the current corpus of knowledge