IHCA Conference highlights delays and costs associated with health claims
Protocols for the retrieval of crucial medical reports as part of medical negligence cases are likely to come in early next year, a representative of the State Claims Agency has said.
Addressing the annual conference of the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) Philip Fagan said that new rules will speed up the delivery of key records and make claims processes more humane.
The claims manager said that, currently, parties to a claim could be left waiting up to two years to receive relevant records. Some of his cases have been delayed so long that the clinicians involved have since retired or left the country.
“Some of my experts could take six to nine months to get a report, because they’re so specialised, especially with catastrophic injuries,” he said.
Currently claims in Ireland take an average of four years to be resolved, far longer than in other jurisdictions including the UK. Prolonged legal actions here have also been found to take a significant toll on clinicians’ mental health.
Mr Fagan’s comments come after an expert report published last year examined the rising cost of health-related claims, made suggestions on ways to reduce costs, and suggested ideas to improve the experience of the processes involved for patients.
Recommendations include the return of periodic payment orders (PPOs) – payments made to affected parties given over their lifetime, rather than in a lump sum. These orders were paused in 2019 after it was found that they were not adequately linked to healthcare inflation levels.
“PPOs really do need to come back,” said Prof Rhona Mahony, who chaired the working group on the rising cost of health claims. “It’s a much better way of compensating patients, particularly in catastrophic brain injury when you’re looking over a lifetime, and different units will have different monetary requirements.”
She added that legal expenses account for 23 per cent of all costs associated with these claims. Previous research from the Medical Protection Society found that the average legal cost for a claim in Ireland is €34,646 – 191 per cent more expensive than in the UK.
In recent years the country’s outstanding health liabilities have grown to over €5.35 billion. Opening the conference in Kilkenny, IHCA president Prof Gabrielle Colleran said that this figure could rise further if action isn’t taken.
She said that the union has met with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan on the proposed introduction of pre-action protocols and the return of phased payments.
The IHCA also plans to train more Irish clinicians to be independent expert witnesses in medical negligence claims, which they believe will reduce the dependency of the system on expertise overseas and cut court costs.
“The key goal of this collaboration is to reduce the emotional and financial burden placed on both patients and practitioners, and in turn, to do our part to help curb the ever-increasing rise in the State Claims Agency’s outstanding liability,” she said.
For full coverage of the IHCA annual conference see the next print edition of Irish Medical Times.
