“£220,000 is a huge amount of money which could make a real difference to frontline care – it could, for example, pay for over 5,000 breast cancer mammograms.”

Ben Gummer, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Ipswich, has today released figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which reveal that Suffolk Primary Care Trust has paid out in excess of £220,000 in compensation to patients and staff since April 2007.

The payouts include £160,000 for a clinical negligence claim following hip replacement surgery, £26,771 for complications arising from catheterisation, £16,500 paid to a staff member after an accident unloading a lorry, and £8,000 for back pain suffered by a member of staff.  In total the PCT’s compensation bill increased by 410% last year, and midway through this year has already gone up by a further 204%.

Ben said:

“We have some of the finest and most hard working NHS professionals in the country in Suffolk. These new figures, which have been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, in no way detract from the excellent work that nurses, doctors and support staff do in our community. However, they do show considerable failures in management and the quality of commissioning by the PCT, whose negligence bill is just going up and up.

“£220,000 is a huge amount of money which could make a real difference to frontline care – it could, for example, pay for over 5,000 breast cancer mammograms and would go a long way to building the cardiac centre in Ipswich Hospital we have been promised.  Taken with the £600,000 they have spent on their new carpark, just in these two instances the PCT has wasted well over £800,000.

“As I have said before, the board of the PCT must get a grip: this kind of profligacy, especially with the public finances in such a dire state, is simply not acceptable.  If we do not see significant improvements in management and leadership soon, then there must be a very serious question mark over whether this board has the ability to perform their duties.  They must remain on notice until they show that they are capable to serving the people of Ipswich and Suffolk.”4th October 2009