NHS clinical negligence fees questioned

A lawyer has questioned the figures used by justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and later used in an article in the British Medical Journal. Clarke told listeners: “I mean in 2008/09 the NHS did pay out £312m in damages; it paid far more out to lawyers in fees, £456m. So it is the wrong way round and it is not where the NHS should be spending money.”