Legal action taken by an individual or group of individuals, usually patients, against hospitals, health-service providers or health professionals in respect of alleged inadequacies in the provision of health care.
In the hospital service, claims for clinical negligence have risen enormously since the 1970s. In 1975 the NHS spent about £1m a year on legal claims; by 2004 the NHS faced over £2 billion in outstanding claims. In 1995 a risk-pooling Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) was set up in England, and is administered by the NHS Litigation Authority. NHS trusts are expected to follow a set of risk-management standards, the ?rst being that each trust should have a written risk-management strategy with an explicit commitment to managing clinical risk (see RISK MANAGEMENT).... medical litigation
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