Claims payouts by Wexham Park Hospital dropped greatly last year

Wexham Park Hospital saw a significant reduction in the amount of money paid out in claims made against it last year – and compares favourably to other hospitals under the same trust.

A Freedom of Information request by the Advertiser & Express asked about the cost of clinical claims closed or settled with a damages payment between 2019/20 and 2023/24.

At Wexham, the total paid out across the five years was £20.9million – but last year’s total was vastly lower than the previous two.

Including damages paid, NHS legal costs, claimant costs and total legal costs, claim costs for Wexham Park Hospital were highest in 2021/22, reaching £7.6million.

The year after, this dipped significantly to £4.5million, and dipped again to just under £2million last year.

The least costly year for Wexham Park was 2020/21, spending about £1.5million in total. This was also a sharp dip from the previous year, with 2019/20 costing it £5.2million.

In its most expensive year, Wexham paid out more than £4.5million in damages and £3.1million in total legal costs.

This is about five times more than it paid in damages last year, which amounted to £907,000.

Despite these differences, a similar number of claims have been made each year, an average of about 28. The large range in costs can reflect either the severity or complexity of claims.

Where damages costs are higher, this can be due to a loss of income for the patient as a result of a medical intervention, or the cost of rehabilitation or long-term medical care.

In terms of legal costs, some cases settle early while others go to court. If a hospital fights more claims in court instead of settling, legal costs can spike.

On the whole, Wexham Park hospital fares well compared to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, which is run by the same trust – Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

While Wexham and Frimley Park have a similar number of beds (about 700), Frimley has paid out far more in terms of damages year-on-year.

On average, Frimley Park had more claims made against it – about 40 a year.

Within the five-year lens, it paid a total of nearly £68million, with a peak of £30.4million in 2022/23. This included damages of £25million.

Meanwhile, total costs at Heatherwood Hospital – a small Frimley Trust hospital in Ascot – were comparatively high.

Focusing more on diagnostics, day surgery and outpatient care, Heatherwood has only 48 beds, but nonetheless reached a total pay-out of £12.5million over five years.

But Heatherwood tends to fetch a low number of claims – fewer than five per year – and in fact, the high total cost has been dragged up by one particularly expensive year.

In 2021/22, Heatherwood paid more than £10.2million in damages, making up the vast majority of its claims costs since 2019.

Differences in damages between hospitals can be explained in a few ways.

Hospitals with more high-risk departments (e.g., obstetrics, neurosurgery) tend to have higher pay-outs compared to hospitals handling lower-risk procedures.

In addition, Heatherwood hospital is an elective surgical hub, providing non-emergency surgeries. Hospitals which do more elective surgeries may face fewer claims – but if mistakes occur, they can result in large compensation claims.