Litigation claims in Urology in the UK National Health Service: an analysis of the trends, costs and causes over a 16-year period.

Autor: Tiwari A; Department of Urology, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK., Lane J; Department of Urology, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK., Somani B; Department of Urology, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK.; Faculty of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: BJU international [BJU Int] 2024 Oct; Vol. 134 (4), pp. 630-635. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 05.
DOI: 10.1111/bju.16453
Abstrakt: Objective: To analyse the litigation trends and the reasons for claims within the specialty of Urology, within the UK National Health Service (NHS), over a 16-year period.
Materials and Methods: Data were requested from NHS Resolution under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This included the total number of claims in Urology, the number of these that were successful (settled or closed), and the costs in damages paid out per financial year between 2006 and 2022. A breakdown of the successful claims by their primary cause was also collected. These were coded into the categories: 'non-operative', 'intraoperative', 'postoperative', and 'other'.
Results: A total of 4124 litigation claims were made between 2006 and 2022 and 60.9% (2511/4124) of these claims were successful. In all, £145 million (British pounds) was paid out in damages. The number of successful claims increased 2.9-fold from the start to end of this 16-year period, and the costs in damages paid out increased 10-fold. Regarding primary causes for the successful claims, failure or delay in treatment (20.9%, 525/2511), failure or delay in diagnosis (14.5%, 364/2511), and intraoperative problems (9.1%, 229/2511) accounted for the highest proportion. Overall, non-operative causes for successful claims accounted for 73.3% (1840/2511), intraoperative for 20.1% (504/2511), and postoperative for 3.9% (98/2511).
Conclusions: The number of successful urological litigation claims, and their associated costs is rising. The majority are due to non-operative causes, which may be partially explained by NHS waiting lists alongside the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
(© 2024 BJU International.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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