‘Systems problems’ blamed as State pays €177m for clinical negligence

Delayed diagnoses, faulty medical devices, missed medication, wrong medical records applied to patients — all feature among the incidents in our hospitals that led to the State paying out €177m in damages between 2010 and 2014.

‘National Clinical Incidents, Claims and Costs’, a five-year report by the State Claims Agency (SCA), says most clinical incidents are related to “systems problems (Swiss cheese effect) rather than to one individual or person”.

Agency director Ciaran Breen said clinical negligence cases “generally speaking do not tend to be reducible to a single causative factor such as a doctor”.