Medical negligence claims from 2017 to 2021 (FOI)

Request

Please confirm the total number of medical negligence claims and their value from 1 January 2017 to 1 October 2021 inclusive.

Response

Note 1 – these figures relate to approaches from law firms or litigants in person investigating the possibility of a claim. Not all matters then lead to a claim.

Note 2 – Final values are not known on all claims so are not provided, as they would not reflect the true value

• a claim is classified as being a written approach to the Minister for Health and Social / Community Services, either by a legal representative acting for a patient and / or patient’s family or a litigant in person seeking to claim compensation in relation to any alleged negligent act, error or omission by any employee of the Minister

• for the purpose of this response, claims ‘taken to court’ are interpreted as claims where an Order of Justice has been served on the Minister for Health and Social / Community Services

• claims that ‘have not reached court’ are claims where a Letter of Claim has been received and / or allegations of negligence have been received and compensation sought

• settlements may be made out of court, whether the claims are ‘taken to court’ or ‘may not have reached court’, or claims may be determined by the Court at trial

• individual compensation awards for damages may have a confidentiality agreement included in the terms of settlement. Compensation awards may be global settlements which include damages, costs and disbursements. Further detail regarding claim values made against the Minister cannot be disclosed for this reason. Disclosure control has been applied under Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 in order to protect the privacy of individuals

Between 2017 and 1 October 2021, there have been eighty-nine medical negligence claims made against the Minister. The outcomes of these claims include; out of court settlement, denial of liability, withdrawn claims, claims that did not progress and claims that are statute barred.

Article applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if – (a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and (b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.