Over £13 million has been paid out to claimants in damages by two NHS trusts in Suffolk over the last five years, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
Figures obtained by Medical Negligence Assist found that since 2019, West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) have paid out a combined total of £13,569,875.
Between 2019 and 2024, 216 claims regarding errors were lodged against trusts in Suffolk, 102 of which were settled.
In 2019/20, 24 claims were made against the trusts, the lowest number of claims over the five year period. Two years later, this number increased to 68 claims.
ESNEFT paid out £10,075,236 over five years. Dr Tim Leary is interim Chief Medical Officer at ESNEFT, which runs Colchester and Ipswich hospitals.
He said: “We're committed to providing our patients with safe and compassionate care and treatment.
"We take any concerns raised about the standard of care someone has received in our hospitals very seriously. We then carry out appropriate and timely investigations.
"Where there have been failings and a negligence claim is lodged, we aim to settle that claim as quickly as we can. We do this by working closely with patients, their legal teams and our colleagues at NHS Resolution.
"We also share any lessons learned so we can improve our services for the future."
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust paid out £3,494,639 to claimants in damages.
Richard Goodwin, executive medical director for the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said: "Everyone at the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is wholeheartedly committed to providing our patients with the safest care.
"We offer our sincere apologies to those patients and their loved ones when our care falls short of what they should rightly expect.
"When things don’t go as planned, we investigate thoroughly and work tirelessly to identify learning to make any possible improvements.
"We have numerous patient safety initiatives which are designed to enhance the care we provide and prevent any safety incidents.
"These include the Call 4 Concern service which allows patients and their loved ones to raise any concerns, our critical care outreach team who respond to and support our sickest patients outside of the intensive care unit, and the patient safety incident response framework which helps us rapidly identify and share learning from these events."
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