\n In the 2019\/20, 2021\/22 and 2023\/24 financial years alone, the trust spent \u00a34,541,624 of public money dealing with cases of A&E negligence.\n<\/p>\n
\n This figure includes damages, NHS legal costs and claimant costs paid, as 27 claims about emergency department carelessness were lodged since 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 18 of these were settled.\n<\/p>\n
\n READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children drops<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n On a national scale, UHS, which provides services to around 1.9 million people, argued it was not among the trusts which had the highest claims.\n<\/p>\n \n The data reflected this, as it was\u00a0one of 88 trusts to receive fewer than five claims in the 2022\/23 year, and was not within the top 45 for most claims in any year since 2019\/20.\n<\/p>\n \n However, a note from NHS Resolution, which provided the data, said that trusts should not be seen as competing on a “league table”.\n<\/p>\n \n This is because “large\u00a0member organisations and those which provide more complex treatments may\u00a0receive more claims than smaller organisations or those providing low risk care”, and that each trust faces different levels of risk based on the procedures they perform.\n<\/p>\n \n A&E negligence refers to any “avoidable” medical errors made in the emergency department, which end up making a patient’s health worse.\n<\/p>\n \n These mistakes could include those of human error, such as misdiagnosis, or they could be environment<\/a>al, such as unclean waiting rooms.\n<\/p>\n \n The highest number of claims against UHS was made in 2020\/21, when nine\u00a0were filed, as shown in research conducted by\u00a0Medical Negligence Assist.\n<\/p>\n