Clwyd West MS Darren Millar is demanding to know why Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s negligence payments over the past five years are so “out of kilter” with those at other health boards in Wales.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Welsh Conservatives asked ‘How much has Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) paid out following successful negligence claims in each of the last 5 years?’.

The Health Board responded:

“Provided in the table below is the total cost of clinical negligence claims paid by BCUHB in each of the last 5 financial years”:

Year

Total

2017-2018

14,919,336.63

2018-2019

22,237,754.80

2019-2020

15,435,110.09

2020-2021

26,399,797.74

2021-2020

24,536,594.62

The same question was also asked of other Health Boards across Wales and the results show that BCUHB has paid out excessively more.

For example, in comparison the figures for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board are as follows:

Finance Year Amount:

April 17 - Mar 18 - 9,753,332.99

April 18 - Mar 19 - 4,374,391.22

April 19 - Mar 20 - 4,800,649.16

April 20 - Mar 21 - 8,753,335.33

April 21 - Mar 22 - 9,141,013.04

A total of £36,822,721.74.

At Powys Health Board the figures were:

2016 – 2017 £21,231.30

2017 – 2018 £22,500.00

2018 – 2019 £59,976.00

2019 – 2020 £53,297.50

2020 - 2021 £187,385.00

2021 - 2022 £148,090.1

Commenting Darren said:

“The figures for BCUHB are quite frankly staggering and worryingly are on an upward trajectory.

“The difference between the figures at the North Wales Health Board and other health board in Wales is astronomical.

“Betsi is hugely out of kilter and these amounts need investigating and explaining.  

“As we are all aware, Betsi is a very troubled health board which is failing the people of North Wales. They would be better spending this money on improving staffing, safety and bed numbers than paying out compensation for failings.”