Claims against HSE soar in 5 years

The HSE is facing a claims crisis with the number of High Court cases against the health services almost doubling in five years to reach record levels.

Close to 1,000 new claims against the HSE, its hospitals, and other services were lodged with the High Court last year — almost twice as many as in 2010.

The cost of mistakes made within healthcare settings is already huge. The State Claims Agency (SCA) has reported it had more than 3,000 claims on hand at the end of 2013, arising from medical errors alone and was expecting payouts to run to €1bn.