Imperial College London has released their report in respect of safety in the NHS, following on from their first report in 2022, and to say that the contents are shocking is an understatement. The report, titled ‘National State of Patient Safety 2024: Prioritising Improvement efforts in a system under stress’, outlines that the cost to the NHS of unsafe care in England is £14.7 billion per year treating people who have been harmed by mistakes made during their care. This figure does not even include the cost of clinical negligence claims, which cost £2.9 billion to the NHS in 2023-2024; this amounts to 1.7% of the entire NHS budget and double the share of total health spending as New Zealand, 10 times the level of Australia and 20 times as much as Canada.

In the first report from Imperial, it presented a mixed picture for patient safety, with some types of harms, such as people contracting MRSA in hospital and rates of maternal and neonatal deaths having reduced, but highlighting patient and staff concerns about workforce shortages, hospital deaths and issues with accessing care.  

Rather than improving since the last review, performance in key areas such as maternity care have deteriorated and needed urgent attention. 22 key areas were explored within the report and from these, 12 out of 12 had got worse. The report found that the safety of the care patients receive had declined over the past two years, with errors leading to 820 preventable deaths a year. 

The headline conclusions from the report, which analysed data from 2023 and 2024, are: 

• The UK was ranked 21st out of 38 countries from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 

• 13,495 deaths could have been avoided if the UK matched the top 10% of OECD countries. 

• 65% of maternity units in England were ranked as ‘inadequate’ or ‘requiring improvement’ in respect of safety by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 

• Maternal deaths increased from 8.8 to 13.4 per 100,000 maternities between 2017-2019 and 2020-2022, which is an increase of 52.3%  

• For the first time in a decade, rates of maternal and neonatal deaths have risen and continue to rise 

• The cost of harm for claims resulting from incidents in 2023-2024 was £5.1 billion. 

• In 2023, the proportion of patients who said there was enough nurses on duty to care for them was 56% 

• In June 2024, the number of patients waiting for elective care was 7.6 million. 

• As of September 2024, the proportion of people waiting more than 4 hours for a treatment decision in A&E was 25%
  

The report lays bare the stark north/south divide on patients in England, with double the amount of death and disability caused by medical negligence in the north-east than in Greater London. The North of England also had the highest proportion of hospitals trusts with a greater than expected number of deaths, having increased from 8% to 14% since the first Imperial report.  

It also demonstrates an ethnic divide, with maternal death rates for women from black ethnic backgrounds being almost 3 times higher than for white women. Lord Darzi, who was involved in not only this report but also the recent Darzi report, commented that, “Our analysis highlights a troubling increase in neonatal and maternal deaths, with Black women disproportionately affected”. 

The report portrays a bleak picture as to the state of the NHS, reiterating the call for action from the Darzi report. It is clear that patients are being failed in respect of safety and that the public is losing confidence in the ability of the NHS to provide safe care at times of urgent need. Whilst all are in agreement that change is needed, it  remains unclear as to how and when this much needed change to the NHS is going to happen 

We are here to support those who have been let down by the NHS and to fight for the justice that they deserve. If you or a loved one have suffered harm due to failings in the NHS, please contact our experienced medical negligence team to discuss how we can help.