Health Services

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Questions (1690, 1691)

Colm Burke

Question:

1690. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health the current number of medical negligence claims that are pending against each of the 19 maternity hospitals, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17749/23]

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Colm Burke

Question:

1691. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health to provide details of each of the medical negligence claims made against the 19 maternity hospitals; which of these said claims have been settled over the past five years, in tabular form for each of the 19 individual maternity units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17750/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Health

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1690 and 1691 together.

The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive.

I have been informed by the SCA that the information contained within this document has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) according to the below criteria.

As some Maternity units are embedded within larger hospitals and are not standalone facilities the information provided relates only to clinical care claims in Maternity Services across all units.

The SCA does not release transaction data into the public domain at individual hospital level because to do so would effectively provide a league table of hospitals and could cause the public to draw false and unwarranted assumptions in relation to the clinical performance of an individual hospital in the absence of further relevant contextual information.

Criteria used

• The figures relate to clinical care claims under Maternity Services in the 19 maternity units hospitals (see appendix).

• The figures relate to any type of clinical claim where the service has been recorded as Maternity Services.

• Table 1 shows the number of active claims.

• Table 2 shows the number of claims created historically.

• Table 3 shows the list of hospitals with maternity units

• This report is correct as of 31/03/2023.

I have been informed by the SCA that there are 886 active clinical maternity service claims for the 19 hospitals with maternity units as of 31/03/2023, as set out in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Active claims for the 19 hospitals with maternity units as of 31/03/2023.

Location at Level 2	Number of Active Claims
Group 1 - RCSI Hospitals Group	202
Group 2 - Dublin Midlands Hospital Group	123
Group 3 - Ireland East Hospital Group	181
Group 4 - South/South West Hospital Group	151
Group 5 - Saolta University Health Care Group	159
Group 6 - University of Limerick Hospital Group	70
Grand Total	886

I have also been informed by the SCA that 2,336 clinical maternity service claims have been created for the 19 hospitals with maternity units as of 31/03/2023. Of these, 652 claims have been finalised between 2018 and 2023 YTD (to end March), as set out in Table 2.

Table 2: All claims received and claims finalised between 2018-2023 YTD for the 19 hospitals with maternity units as of 31/03/2023.

Location at Level 2	All Claims Received	Claims Finalised 2018-2023 YTD (to end March)
Group 1 - RCSI Hospitals Group	567	139
Group 2 - Dublin Midlands Hospital Group	383	113
Group 3 - Ireland East Hospital Group	449	126
Group 4 - South/South West Hospital Group	364	118
Group 5 - Saolta University Health Care Group	426	122
Group 6 - University of Limerick Hospital Group	147	34
Grand Total	2,336	652

Table 3: List of Hospitals with Maternity Units

19 Maternity Units
Cavan General Hospital
Cork University Maternity Hospital
Letterkenny University Hospital
Mayo University Hospital
Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar
Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise
National Maternity Hospital
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda
Portiuncula University Hospital
Rotunda Hospital
Sligo University Hospital
St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny
The Coombe Women & Infant University Hospital
Tipperary University Hospital
University Hospital Galway
University Hospital Kerry
University Hospital Waterford
University Maternity Hospital Limerick
Wexford General Hospital

Definitions:

National Incident Management System (NIMS): Incidents (which include claims) are reported using the “National Incident Management System”. This is hosted by the State Claims Agency (SCA) for the HSE, other Healthcare enterprises and State Authorities. An incident can be a harmful Incident (Adverse Event), no harm incident, near miss, dangerous occurrence (reportable circumstance) or complaint.

Claim Create Date: Official date that the claim was created on NIMS. If a record is first logged to the system as a claim, the "Claim Create Date" and "Create Date" will be the same, however, if a record was once an incident and subsequently transitioned into a claim, the "Claim Create Date" will differ from the "Create Date", with the "Create Date" representing the date the incident was first recorded, and the "Claim Create Date" representing the date the record transitioned to a Claim.

Claim Finalised Date: The date when a claim has been finalised in NIMS and all other matters associated with it have been agreed e.g. costs. All associated payments will have been issued or will be in process of being paid.

There may still be reimbursements outstanding on a finalised claim.

Claim: A claim refers to notification of intention to seek compensation for personal injury and/or property damage where it is alleged the State was negligent. The application may be in the form of a letter of claim, an InjuriesBoard.ie application, or a written/oral request.

Clinical Claim: A claim which falls under the Incident Hazard category of Clinical Care. This category includes incidents relating to the provision of services of a diagnostic or palliative nature. It also includes incidents relating to the provision of treatment. Incidents present in this category will be related to Labour/Delivery, Diagnosis, Surgical/Medical, Care Management, Clinical Procedure, medication incidents or nutrition/blood related incidents.

Question No. 1691 answered with Question No. 1690.