Hospital Trust pays out over £3Million in compensation claims

Rochdale Infirmary

Pennie Acute Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield Hospital, North Manchester General and the Royal Oldham has paid out the third highest amount of compensation claims in Britain. The trust has paid out £3.14 million in medical negligence claims during 2008-09.

A total of £2,085,294 was paid in damages by Pennine Acute for 10 cases involving departments such as cardiology and paediatrics. Claimant costs totalled £794,875 and defence costs were £403,984.

Ruth Jameson, medical director at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “As the largest NHS trust in the North-West and one of the largest in England we run five hospitals, employ around 10,000 staff and serve a population of 800,000 people.

“We spend over half a billion pounds a year on providing quality healthcare services and have the most accident and emergency attendances nationally and in 2007/08 we delivered the most births nationally across our hospitals.

“Larger trusts who serve a larger population are clearly more likely to receive compensation claims than smaller trusts or those providing low-risk care. Our priority is to provide the very best care for each patient on every occasion.

“The vast majority of the thousands of patients that we treat and care for every day receive and experience a good quality, safe and effective healthcare service.”