Financial Compensation - FOI Response Register

1. Please can you confirm whether NHS Shetland have a policy and/or approach where financial compensation can be paid without legal action being required to be instigated, based on cases of a diagnosis that has been missed and/or medical misdiagnoses, or whether legal action is always necessary?

NHS Shetland’s complaint handling procedure is based on the national Complaint Handling Procedure as mandated by the Scottish Government.  This does not provide for financial compensation. Page 7 refers: https://www.nhsshetland.scot/downloads/file/1/nhs-shetland-complaint-handling-procedure

Excerpt from the NHS Shetland Complaint Handling Procedure -

Financial compensation
The NHS complaints procedure does not provide for financial compensation. The independent Patient Advice and Support Service may be able to advise anyone who is seeking compensation where to get information about specialist solicitors who handle medical negligence claims. It may also be appropriate to advise those who seek financial compensation that they may contact Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA), or the Law Society of Scotland. AvMA provides free independent advice and support to people affected by medical accidents while the Law Society of Scotland can provide contact details of law firms throughout Scotland that may specialise in claims for medical compensation.

Medical negligence is where care is considered to have fallen below appropriate standards of care and cases can be extremely complicated. Where a complaint investigation has established that care has not been delivered to an acceptable standard, there is still then a need to quantify appropriate compensation, based on the nature of the adverse patient outcome, and the impact on that individual’s future wellbeing, including potential loss of earnings. Legal action is therefore required, where, as part of that process, one or more expert reports will be sought that are completely independent of the Board in question.