Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1746. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Health the amount of money spent by the HSE on legal cases, by year, from 2018 to date; the amount spent on covering legal fees of plaintiffs in the cases the HSE did not win; the types of cases brought against the HSE in this period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38348/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive. The SCA have informed me that the information below has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
Please note that it is not possible for the SCA to report on plaintiff legal fees in the manner asked by the Deputy, therefore the data provided relates to all plaintiff legal costs paid in relation to the HSE in the years concerned.
Response from SCA:
• The information contained in this report has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
• HSE claims relate to claims against the HSE locations, i.e. Acute and Community settings, Section 38 service providers and the National Services and Disability sector locations. It does not contain any private scheme locations.
• Amounts include VAT.
• This report is correct as of 01/09/2023.
Criteria Used:
Table 1: Amount Paid
• Transaction Report Date: 2018 – 2023 (End of Aug).
• Total amount paid includes Damages, Agency Legal Costs, Plaintiff Legal Costs and Expert Costs
Table 2: Claims Created
• Claim Create Date: 2018 – 2023 (End of Aug).
• Coverage excludes PDR.
Table 1: Amount paid for HSE for the period 2018-2023 (End of Aug)
|
Transaction Type |
|
|
Amount Paid (€) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 (End of Aug) |
Grand Total |
|
Total Amount Paid |
315,630,980 |
378,468,829 |
380,223,320 |
450,346,118 |
484,207,735 |
344,202,647 |
2,353,079,629 |
|
Plaintiff Legal Costs* ** |
47,198,485 |
58,420,098 |
60,839,946 |
58,966,487 |
83,377,472 |
58,224,226 |
367,026,715 |
*The increased plaintiff legal cost from 2021 to 2022 is partly driven by the H1N1 vaccination claims.
**As noted above re plaintiff legal fees.
Table 2: HSE Claims Created between 2018-2023 (End of Aug) by Incident/ Hazard Category
Claim Create Year
|
Incident / Hazard Category |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 (End of Aug |
Grand Total |
|
Clinical Care |
819 |
821 |
882 |
718 |
730 |
525 |
4,495 |
|
Exposure to Physical Hazards |
399 |
447 |
334 |
287 |
305 |
204 |
1,976 |
|
Exposure to Psychological hazards |
305 |
375 |
392 |
387 |
260 |
227 |
1,946 |
|
Crash/Collision |
211 |
211 |
178 |
167 |
242 |
164 |
1,173 |
|
Exposure to Behavioural Hazards |
204 |
196 |
132 |
112 |
143 |
100 |
887 |
|
Other* |
142 |
176 |
121 |
164 |
178 |
124 |
905 |
|
Grand Total |
2,080 |
2,226 |
2,039 |
1,835 |
1,858 |
1,344 |
11,382 |
* Others Incident/Hazard categories include Exposure to Biological Hazards, Exposure to Chemical Hazards, Property Damage/Loss (non crash/collision) and null categories.
Definitions:
National Incident Management System (NIMS): Incidents (which include claims) are reported using the “National Incident Management System”, hosted by the State Claims Agency (SCA). An incident can be a harmful Incident (Adverse Event), no harm incident, near miss, dangerous occurrence (reportable circumstance) or complaint.
Transaction Reporting Date: This refers to the date that payments were issued. These payments include damages, legal fees and other expert fees.
Damages Payments: Can includes both General Damages and Special Damages.
Plaintiff Legal Costs: Legal Costs incurred by the Plaintiff and paid by the SCA.
Agency Legal Costs: Fees paid to solicitors and barristers engaged by the SCA.
Other costs: Fees paid to experts engaged by the SCA e.g. medical experts, private investigators etc.
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.
Claim Create Date: The date the claim was created on NIMS either directly or as a result of an incident being upgraded.
Incident/Hazard Category: The incident/hazard category is a high level classification used to describe the cause of an incident. This is based on international recognised hazard classifications but which has been further developed to denote hazards that can have a direct or indirect impact on a person or property. This high-level classification is a grouping together of like type hazards which are broken down in further detail in the sub-hazard type. The high-level hazards include “Clinical Care”, “Exposure to Physical Hazards”, “Exposure to Psychological Hazards”, “Exposure to Chemical Hazards”, “Exposure to Biological Hazards”, “Crash/Collision” and “Property damage/loss (non-crash collision)”.
