Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of deaths attributed to medical negligence in each year for which data is available.

Open and honest reporting of patient safety incidents is a fundamental pillar of a good patient safety culture. Information on patient safety incidents, including serious incidents which result in severe harm or death, is recorded on the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS). The primary purpose of the NRLS is to enable learning to continuously improve the safety of patient care.

Data is not collected at a national level on whether reported deaths are due to medical negligence, but NHS Resolution, the body which manages claims against National Health Service organisations and independent sector providers of NHS care in England, has provided the following information:

The number of clinical fatality claims received between 1 April 2000 and 31 March 2017 (by Incident Year) and the number of those which has been successful as at 31 May 2018. The values below five are represented by a ‘*’ symbol:

Notes:

These numbers only represent claims reported to NHS Resolution; they do not represent an estimate of the total number of deaths attributable to clinical negligence.

This data is for England only and does not include claims made against primary care providers.