NEWS DIGEST


Sharp rise in negligence payouts by NHS


COMPENSATION payouts and legal costs for clinical negligence covered by the NHS in England increased by more than a quarter last year, reaching almost £1.5 billion. New figures from the NHS Litigation


Authority (NHSLA) show that in 2015/16 total payments relating to their clinical schemes increased by £319 million (27 per cent) – from £1,169.5 million to £1,488.5 million. While new clinical negligence claims in


2015/16 fell in number by almost five per cent to just under 11,000, damages paid to patients jumped 23 per cent from £774 million to more than £950 million. Claimants’ legal costs saw another big increase – rising by 43 per cent, from £292 million in 2014/15 to £418 million last year. The report said that clinical negligence


costs remained a key issue last year, with contributors to the scheme (mainly NHS providers) seeing contributions to settle claims rise by 35 per cent in 2015/16, with a further increase of 17 per cent in 2016/17.


Commenting on the report, NHSLA


Chief Executive Helen Vernon said: “The key to reducing the growing costs of claims is learning from what goes wrong and supporting changes to prevent harm in the first place. “We want to reduce the need for


expensive litigation. This means increasing the use of mediation in the NHS, early transparency, saying ‘sorry’ and demonstrating that lessons have been learned to prevent the incident happening again.”


Dentists “must apologise” when care goes wrong


DENTISTS must tell patients when something has gone wrong with their care and apologise, according to new guidance


Treat sepsis as “urgently as heart attack”


PATIENTS showing signs of sepsis should be treated with the same urgency as those with suspected heart attacks, according to new NICE guidance. The guidance advises NHS health


professionals that they should think about the possibility of sepsis in all patients who may have an infection because “sepsis can affect anyone at any time”. It acknowledges the difficulty in diagnosing sepsis as symptoms can


vary from person to person. These can range from a high temperature, to fast heartbeat to a fever or chills. Sepsis can often be mistaken for common infections like flu. Quick identification and early treatment are key. Doctors are urged to start asking “could this be sepsis?” earlier on “so they rule it out or get people on treatment as soon as possible”. The UK Sepsis Trust estimates there are around 150,000 cases in the UK every


year, causing 44,000 deaths annually. A report published last year found that in more than a third of cases (36 per cent) there were delays in identifying sepsis and many hospitals had no formal protocols in place to recognise it. Professor Mark Baker, director of the NICE Centre for Guidelines, said: “When hospitals are well prepared, clinicians do better at responding to patients with sepsis. If there is any delay in spotting the signs we will fail patients by leaving them with debilitating problems, or in the worst cases people will die.” Access the new guidance at www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG51


from the General Dental Council. Clinicians are also required, where possible, to “put matters right” and explain the short and long-term effects of what has happened. These requirements are set out in the


regulator’s new guidance on the professional duty of candour, Being open and honest with patients when something goes wrong, which came into effect on July 1. The new guidance makes it clear that “candour means being open and honest with all patients, whether they have made a complaint or not”. It sets out the ways in which dentists must demonstrate this, beginning before treatment is even carried out. It describes what to do when things go wrong, when and how to tell the patient and apologise. The requirement to offer an apology has


been criticised by the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT) which commented: “being forced to apologise, potentially a legal admission of fault, positions the clinician in professional jeopardy”. But the GDC guidance reassures clinicians, saying: “Apologising to the patient is not the same as admitting legal liability for what happened. This is set out in legislation in parts of the UK and the NHS Litigation Authority also advises that saying sorry is the right thing to do. You should not withhold an apology because you think that it might cause problems later.”


GMC to revamp medical register


DOCTORS’ photos and more detailed


● INCREASED MOUTH CANCER RISK WITH HCV INFECTION Patients infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) are at a greater risk of developing mouth cancer, according to new research published in the Journal


6


of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers in Texas found that patients with HCV seropositivity were more than twice as likely to develop either cancers in the mouth cavity or of the oropharynx. Extra vigilance is urged.


● ETHNICITY STILL A FACTOR New research from the GMC has found that white UK medical graduates remain more likely to pass specialty exams than their black and minority ethnic (BME) counterparts. The report found


that the average exam pass rate for all UK medical graduates is 71 per cent but rises to 75.8 per cent among white graduates and falls to 63.2 per cent for UK BME medical graduates. Pass rates for international medical graduates


SUMMONS


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