Barts Health NHS Trust paid out £20 million to patients for medical mistakes

Over a span of five years, Barts Health NHS Trust paid nearly £20m to 99 patients for misdiagnoses and ‘unnecessary operations ’.

An NHS trust in east London has paid out almost £20 million to patients over ‘unnecessary operations’ and misdiagnoses.

A total of 115 claims regarding misdiagnoses were lodged against Barts Health NHS Trust between 2019 and 2024. Of those, 99 were settled – at a total cost of £19,914,268.

The most common issue reported by patients was unnecessary pain, which was the subject of 14 cases and cost the trust £357,899 in compensation. That was followed by additional operations, which led to 10 claims.

Barts Health oversees four major hospitals across east London, including the Royal London in Whitechapel, Whipps Cross Hospital in Waltham Forest, Newham Hospital, and St Bartholomew’s in the City.

It is one of the largest in the capital and said in a brief statement, it was ‘continuously making improvements’ to its services.

The figures were obtained by Medical Negligence Assist through a Freedom of Information request submitted earlier this year. 

Gareth Lloyd, medical negligence solicitor for JF Law said: ‘Misdiagnoses can have a huge impact on people’s lives.’

He continued: ‘Misdiagnosis is an all-embracing clinical negligence case type and covers a wide range of clinical situations from the simple diagnosis of a fracture to potentially fatal cancer diagnoses.

‘These cases can be a matter of life and death, and whether someone lives or dies will be determined by the success of the diagnosis.’

The most expensive year for Barts was 2022/23, which saw the trust pay £7,321,816 over 26 claims.

That was also the second highest number of claims made in one year, behind the 27 submitted the year prior.

In 2023/24, the number dropped to a low of 18.

A spokesperson for the trust told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: ‘We deliver care to around 2.4 million people across east London and are one of the biggest NHS Trusts in London.

‘We are committed to delivering high-quality care to all our patients and are continuously making improvements to our services.’

Separate figures compiled by NHS Resolution show that diagnostic errors make up around 20% of all clinical negligence claims in the UK.

The data shows that 8,067 misdiagnosis claims have been lodged against NHS trusts since 2019. Of those, 5,677 had been settled – a success rate of around 70%.

The arms-length advisory body highlighted two consistent failings across England: diagnostic errors, particularly incorrect early diagnoses of soft-tissue injuries, and failures in imaging, such as not carrying out CT or MRI scans.

A 2023 study by the British Medical Journal found that one in 18 patients in primary and secondary care had been affected by misdiagnoses.

It also revealed that misdiagnosed cancers, strokes, and heart attacks were among the most serious cases and often led to life-altering consequences or death.

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