Millions being docked from NHS budgets to pay for medical negligence cases

Martin Shipton

Tens of millions of pounds a year are being lopped from health board budgets because of a huge rise in the amount of money being paid out by NHS Wales in medical negligence cases.

Health campaigner Rob Channon has identified the extent of the scandal following an investigation using the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Channon and his wife Sian have themselves received a payout of an undisclosed sum to care for their six-year-old son Gethin, who suffered severe brain damage during his birth at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.

The Channons have led a campaign for justice following numerous failures at Singleton’s maternity unit that have been acknowledged by Health Minister Jeremy Miles.

Mr Channon told us: “I have been doing some investigating on the hidden issue in NHS Wales around the cost of clinical negligence claims on the NHS. From a non monetary point of view the costs on lives and families is devastating. However the financial costs are growing rapidly as well.

“Through an FOI I have obtained the annual report of the Welsh Risk Pool and Legal & Risk Services for the year 2024-2025. These people deal with NHS legal cases in Wales on behalf of health boards and GPs etc.

“The amount of money the Welsh NHS now has as a provision for legal fees relating to clinical negligence and associated fees now totals £1.712bn. It’s a figure that has grown rapidly in recent years.”

In 2019-20, the total amount set aside for medical negligence claims in Wales was £1.34bn. In 2020-21 it was virtually unchanged at £1.133bn.

In 2021-22 the figure went up to £1.429bn and in 2022-23 to £1.494bn.

In 2023-24 it rose again to £1.649bn and in 2024-25 to £1.712bn.

Maternity services

Mr Channon said: “The highest number of these clinical negligence claims are related to maternity services in Wales – an issue we have been campaigning on for years.

Figures released to him show that in April 2025 the highest number of open clinical negligence cases related to maternity services (168), followed by emergency departments and units (150), orthopaedics and trauma (101), surgery (55), gynaecology (46), radiology (32), paediatrics (32), ophthalmology (22), gastroenterology (13), nursing care (13), medicine (17) and all other disciplines (230).

Mr Channon said: “It gets more interesting and worrying when you see that in 2024/2025 the Welsh Government provided funding of £114ish million to cover the clinical claims for that year. However this wasn’t actually enough to cover the costs of the payouts. You can see from a table that £30.478m was funded through an ‘NHS Wales Risk Sharing Agreement’. This amount was taken away from Welsh health board budgets in 2024/25.

“The total being taken from health boards for this financial year 2025/26 is much higher. I have gathered these from Finance Committee meetings for each Health Board from September/October:

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board: £7m.

Betsi Cadwaladr: £9.4m.

Cardiff and Vale UHB: £7.53m.

Hywel Dda UHB: £5.3m

Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB: £6.5m.

Powys Teaching UHB: £1.5m.

Swansea Bay UHB: £7.5bn

Total: £43.73m.

Mr Channon said: “As they are only half way through the year there is a chance these figures will increase again.

“Health boards are being told to find these extra millions from existing budgets. Here is a snippet from a Welsh Government letter to Swansea Bay UHB CEO Abigail Harris on September 12 2025: “On outstanding risks, I emphasised the expectation the health board would deliver the a\ctions required to offset the shortfall in funding on employers’ national insurance and understood that the risk associated with the Welsh Risk Pool sat outside of your current forecast but required action. On Band 2-3, I emphasised that there was no funding available from the Welsh Government to support that risk.”

No extra funds

Mr Channon said: “So the Welsh Government is providing no extra funds to deal with these large amounts.

“What is my point? The growing value of these claims being paid out by the NHS in Wales is adding to the financial woes of health boards in Wales. For example, Swansea Bay UHB is in such a poor state that Deloitte has been in, desperately cutting costs. Now they have to find £7.5m more.

“From our direct experience we have seen an attitude from the Welsh Government and the Welsh NHS that they just don’t focus enough on safety and instead of being open and learning just deny and put out PR statements.

“We have been telling the Welsh Government about the serious issues in Singleton Maternity since 2022 and nothing has changed. They have set up this ‘national assessment of perinatal services’, but appointed a Chair with no relevant experience and have decided not to look at individual cases. The ones doing the actual assessment ground work are the same NHS Wales teams responsible for not dealing with the issues in the first place.

“Something drastically needs to change in the Welsh Government and NHS Wales approach to patient safety before the financial situation gets even worse because of basic safety failings. Reputation is put before patient safety whenever issues are raised.”

Safe healthcare

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said in response: “Every year hundreds of thousands of people receive high-quality and safe healthcare in Wales, but we know that sometimes things can and do go wrong.

“It is vital that people’s voices are heard when they have concerns and complaints. The strengthened complaints process, Listening to People, will focus on early resolution and clearer communication to support people if something goes wrong. Our goal is to enable the NHS to respond quickly to feedback, learn from it, and continuously improve the quality of care.”

The spokesperson pointed out that clinical negligence cases represent a small proportion of the number of people who receive treatment from NHS Wales, adding: “The Senedd recently agreed the National Health Service (Concerns, Complaints and Redress Arrangements) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, reforming the Putting Things Right process in NHS Wales. This has been renamed “Listening to People.”