A Teesside NHS trust had to pay out almost £4mn to patients over a five-year period for claims of misdiagnosis. The North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust made the payouts in 29 cases settled between 2019 and 2024. They were among 40 claims regarding misdiagnoses lodged against the trust, according to figures obtained via freedom of information requests by legal service Medical Negligence Assist.
The trust, which provides hospital and community services across Stockton, Hartlepool and parts of County Durham, had the highest number of claims made against it in 2019 to 2020, when 11 claims were made. This dropped to 10 in 2020 to 2021, then back up to 11 the following year, more than halving to five claims in 2022 to 2023.
The figures dropped again to three claims in 2023 to 2024 – however the trust paid out the highest amount of money that year, a sum of £1,585,611. It paid a total of £3,907,275 over the five-year period, including £446,003 in 2019-20, £116,289 in 2020-1, £803,809 in 2021-2 and £955,563 in 2022-3.
The figures from NHS Resolution, an arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care, revealed that additional operations were the most common outcome for misdiagnosis claims against the North Tees trust. This type of claim was lodged six times, with the trust paying out £500,000 in compensation.
These were among 8,067 claims lodged against NHS trusts around the country for misdiagnosis in the past five years, 5,677 of which were settled. Diagnostic errors contributed to about 20% of all clinical negligence claims, which can be made where people suffer unnecessary pain after having illnesses or injuries diagnosed incorrectly by healthcare professionals and do not receive the right medical care and treatment.
Comment by NHS Foundation Trust
A North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: “We are committed to providing the best care to our patients, however we recognise there are occasions when our care does not meet the standards we all expect. In those situations the trust is committed to working openly and honestly with patients and their relatives, to understand and resolve any issues and to learn from them, so we can continue to improve our systems and services.
“We have implemented the national Patient Safety Incident Response Framework which helps to identify where the most effective changes can be made. We are proud to provide safe and effective care and believe in working in partnership with our patients on a journey of constant improvement.”
The trust says the claims settled between 2019 to 2024 may relate to incidents which occurred in years leading up to that period of time.
Comment by Medical Negligence Assist solicitor
Gareth Lloyd, medical negligence solicitor for JF Law which owns Medical Negligence Assist, said: “Misdiagnosis can have a huge impact on people’s lives.
“Misdiagnosis is an all-embracing clinical negligence case type and covers a wide range of clinical situations from the simple diagnosis of a fracture to potentially fatal cancer diagnoses. These cases can be a matter of life and death, and whether someone lives or dies will be determined by the success of the diagnosis.”
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