August 14, 2005

London's Telegraph reports that amid a rising level of payouts to successful litigants, Britain's National Health Service "has set aside nearly £8 billion [$14.5 billion] over the next 10 years to cover an expected rise in compensation claims and legal bills for medical negligence cases," that number being based on "worst-case" scenarios. "Last year, the NHS Litigation Authority paid out £503 million [$914 million] in claims." A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, one of the opposition parties, called the figures "shocking". As a point of comparison, as was reported this spring, the 182 general hospitals in litigious Pennsylvania, serving a population of 12.3 million, spent $636 million on medical malpractice last year, or roughly $50/resident, while last year's NHS outlays, divided among a British population of 60 million, amount to $15/resident.