Some 15,680 patients have made compensation claims against the health service over the last decade – with more than €2.3 billion paid out as a result, new figures released to Aontú have revealed.
The party leader, Peadar Tóibín, said that, in his opinion, the “considerable rate of mistakes” in hospitals across the country was down to the hospitals being “underequipped and understaffed”.
He had asked the Minister for Health to detail the number of health service-related claims that have been lodged with the State Claims Agency (SCA) for each of the past ten years and to date in 2024, and to report the amount in compensation that has been paid out by each hospital group/CHO as a result of claims lodged against the health service.
In reply, the Minister said the SCA “has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of State Authorities including the Health Service Executive”. The figures given in tabular form includes claims reported against the HSE Regions and CHO Areas, and covers both the General Indemnity Scheme and the Clinical Indemnity Scheme.
“The transactional amount of damages paid by the SCA (inclusive of VAT where appropriate), in respect of claims against the below regions and areas, from 1st January 2014 up until the end of June 2024 was €2,352,631,546 and includes payments in relation to claims against these regions and areas during the period, irrespective of the year of creation,” the Minister told the Aontú leader.
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| Regions and Areas | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (To end of June) |
| HSE Dublin and Midlands Region | 206 | 213 | 265 | 294 | 290 | 341 | 281 | 263 | 205 | 227 | 135 |
| HSE Dublin and Northeast Region | 222 | 288 | 255 | 285 | 337 | 314 | 291 | 267 | 241 | 276 | 149 |
| HSE Dublin and Southeast Region | 160 | 216 | 204 | 212 | 234 | 282 | 286 | 225 | 179 | 217 | 120 |
| HSE Mid-West Region | 65 | 103 | 113 | 98 | 96 | 131 | 113 | 88 | 101 | 109 | 49 |
| HSE Southwest Region | 105 | 117 | 116 | 157 | 143 | 170 | 152 | 142 | 135 | 150 | 73 |
| HSE West and Northwest Region | 149 | 159 | 184 | 187 | 235 | 226 | 228 | 177 | 159 | 185 | 89 |
| CHO Area 1 – Donegal/Sligo/Leitrim/West Cavan/Cavan/Monaghan | 35 | 25 | 33 | 29 | 50 | 52 | 36 | 19 | 33 | 40 | 18 |
| CHO Area 2 – Galway/Roscommon/Mayo | 17 | 21 | 27 | 30 | 35 | 37 | 34 | 38 | 28 | 25 | 7 |
| CHO Area 3 – Clare/Limerick/North Tipperary | 32 | 39 | 28 | 38 | 28 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 25 | 14 | 8 |
| CHO Area 4 – Cork/Kerry | 39 | 35 | 24 | 32 | 39 | 48 | 25 | 29 | 193 | 134 | 48 |
| CHO Area 5 – South Tipperary/Carlow/Kilkenny/Waterford/Wexford | 40 | 33 | 31 | 25 | 30 | 45 | 27 | 35 | 31 | 33 | 16 |
| CHO Area 6 – Wicklow/Dun Laoghaire/Dublin Southeast | 8 | 7 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 20 | 18 | 11 | 14 | 4 |
| CHO Area 7 – Kildare/West Wicklow/Dublin West/South City/Southwest | 28 | 28 | 30 | 45 | 39 | 52 | 38 | 31 | 37 | 41 | 28 |
| CHO Area 8 – Laois/Offaly/Longford/Westmeath/Louth/Meath | 38 | 26 | 29 | 41 | 44 | 30 | 37 | 29 | 38 | 33 | 31 |
| CHO Area 9 – Dublin North/Dublin North City/Dublin Northwest | 23 | 28 | 24 | 32 | 39 | 52 | 29 | 35 | 44 | 48 | 14 |
| Grand Total | 1,167 | 1,338 | 1,377 | 1,520 | 1,652 | 1,806 | 1,613 | 1,412 | 1,460 | 1,546 | 789 |
Peadar Tóibín said that “what these statistics show is that there is a considerable rate of mistakes in our hospitals across the country, this I feel is down to the fact that our hospitals are underequipped and understaffed. Our population has increased significantly in the past few years, but the investment, capacity and staffing of our health service has not increased to match it.”
“This is resulting in a situation where we have 700,000 people on hospital waiting lists and 15,68 people suing the HSE. The amounts paid out in compensation each year are astronomical – there is a huge financial cost to the taxpayer over the mismanagement and underfunding of our health service, but there is also a human cost to the 15,680 people who have suffered adverse affects or incidents in the HSE significant enough to make them want to take a case against the HSE. These are very sad and very alarming statistics which we in Aontú fear are only going to continue to go in the wrong direction for as long as the recruitment freeze remains in place,” he said.
Aontú Kanturk rep Becky Kealy said she was “astounded” by the numbers and said that the number of sick people who sought hospital treatment and then had to sue for mistakes made pointed to a “sick health system”.
“There are not just cold monetary figures – these are human beings. We are talking about people’s lives here, their health, and we don’t even know what injuries they sustained,” she said.
“We are constantly being told that our country is awash with money, but the money is clearly not being spent in the right areas. We know that there is an inordinate emphasis on management and administration instead of on the people who need it most –the staff on the ground who are doing the actual caring. It is they who need support. They are doing their utmost, they are dedicated and professional, but they are understaffed, under-resourced and under incredible and sustained pressure,” Ms Kealy added.
“The fruits of this are laid bare by patients who have to actually sue the HSE for mistakes made during their treatment<” she said. “Our Minister for Health has a lot to answer for.”
“We are educating huge swathes of health care professionals, who are trained to the highest quality and who are getting on boats and plans as soon as they graduate. In one sense, who can blame them as the conditions of employment in places like Australia and Canada for example are so superior to ours”.