Scottish doctors leaders have said a proposed shake-up of the NHS compensation system could help reduce the practice of defensive medicine.
BMA Scottish secretary Martin Woodrow said: ‘The BMA believes that no-fault compensation offers a less adversarial system of resolving the process for compensating patients for clinical errors.’
The Scottish Government last week accepted the recommendations of the No Fault Compensation Review Group, which suggested a move from the current adversarial courts-based system.
Under the proposed system — the practical implications of which will now be investigated more closely by the government — patients would still have to prove they suffered as a result of healthcare treatment, but would not have to prove negligence.
Blame culture
Mr Woodrow added: ‘A system of no-fault compensation with maximum financial limits would benefit both doctors and patients, speeding up the process and reducing the legal expenses incurred by the current system.
‘More importantly, it would address the blame culture within the NHS, which discourages doctors from reporting accidents, and could help in tackling the practice of defensive medicine.’
Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon (pictured) said: ‘No-fault compensation would be a sensible way to ensure people who have been affected are compensated without tying up either patients or the health service in years of litigation.
‘The next step is to investigate thoroughly how such a scheme would work in practice — including any cost implications — both for the benefit of individual patients and the good of the health service as a whole.’
Medico-Legal News Source: BMA
