NHS chiefs have hailed a spirit of collaboration between claimant and defendant lawyers which has seen out-of-court settlements increase.

The NHS Resolution annual report for 2020/21 also revealed that the organisation spent £430m less than was budgeted for claimant costs during the year.

The report reflected on a ‘spirit of co-operation’ during the pandemic as the organisation worked with claimant solicitors to resolve matters without necessarily going to court. During the lockdown, parties on all sides signed up to a clinical negligence protocol, placing moratoriums on limitation, making use of email to serve and receive documents the default and encouraging more co-operation in the progress of claims, and in particular interim payments to avoid unnecessary court hearings.

Helen Vernon, NHS Resolution chief executive, said: ‘A welcome development was greater cooperation between the parties. Our efforts to keep cases out of court gained more traction as there was an increased willingness to resolve matters without formal court proceedings and to try new approaches such as remote mediations.’ 

Helen vernon

NHS Resolution chief executive Helen Vernon

The report said that 15,574 clinical and non-clinical claims were settled in 2020/21 – 124 more than the year before. Of these, 11,704 (74.7%) claims were settled without formal court proceedings, 3,914 (25%) with proceedings but without trial and 56 (0.3%) at trial. This compares to 2019/20 when 71.5% settled without proceedings, 27.9% with proceedings and 0.6% at trial.

Claimant legal costs fell 10% during the year to £497.5m, while damages payments to claimants were down 3.3% to £1.37bn.

Vernon said that clinical and other NHS staff who would normally support the investigation of a claim were diverted to the frontline response, while a number of lawyers acting for claimants furloughed staff, and the usual operation of the court system was constrained.

In 2020/21, NHS Resolution received 12,629 clinical negligence claims and reported incidents, up from 11,678 the year before. This year’s figure included seven claims against a clinical negligence scheme for coronavirus.

While the organisation reported an overall underspend and falling claimant costs, defence costs rose by 5.5% to £151.4m. NHS Resolution said this was expected due to its taking on new indemnity schemes for general practice, including the management of several thousand additional historical claims.