PAYOUTS for medical negligence claims have spiralled over the past five financial years at two NHS trusts providing services for patients in Swindon and Wiltshire.

As reported in the Adver before Christmas, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust paid out £11,309,299 between 2016 and 2017, up from £2,763,167 between 2012 and 2013.

Now it has emerged that Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust also registered a sharp increase, with payouts of £1,121,322 million last year.

The total has risen every year since 2012-2013, when the bill was £435,020, according to information analysed by the BBC Shared Data Unit.

Overall, the bill for medical negligence claims in England has risen four-fold in the past decade, to £1.6 billion last year.

Claims are handled centrally by NHS Resolution, which has attributed the increase to ‘historical’ cases, rising life-expectancy and a recent change in the way payments are calculated.

However, patients’ charity Action Against Medical Accidents claimed basic errors are being repeated over a period of decades.

Chief executive Peter Walsh said: “We, as a charity, have been going for 35 years and we still see the same mistakes, the same avoidable errors causing injury now as we did 35 years ago.”

NHS Resolution said it was still receiving new claims under an historical scheme, with costs also increasing because of people living longer and the change to lump-sum payments.

A spokesman said: “NHS Resolution is now involved right from the start in order to improve the support for families and the healthcare staff involved in these rare but tragic incidents and to speed up resolution.”

Over the five years Avon and Wilts paid out a total of £3,700,639 million.

A spokesman said: “Claims are increasing across health generally and we are no exception. We are not seeing an increase in actual incidents so a single case can make substantial differences to our record because of our volume of cases. We make every effort to learn from our own investigation processes and recommendations from coroners to improve the safety of our service.”

Great Western Hospitals paid out £28,858,308 million over the period, according to the BBC analysis.

The trust commented on its payouts earlier this month, pointing out that the amount it paid to the NHS Resolution fund remained the same, amounting to £4.8million last year.

A spokesman said: “While the amount paid to claimants may have risen in recent years – a trend affecting many NHS organisations across the country – the actual amount the trust has paid to cover the cost of its legal cases has stayed the same for the past two years.”

Lawyers’ fees for successful claims would be capped under plans by The Department of Health to tackle the rising figures. A spokesman said: “We’re ensuring taxpayers’ money is spent effectively by taking action against law firms creaming off excessive legal costs that dwarf the damages recovered - but we’re also clear we want to ensure patients continue to access justice at a reasonable cost.”