According to shock new figures, medical negligence by the NHS in Sheffield cost more than £5.6 million in one year.
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals – which includes the Jessop Wing, Weston Park, Northern General, Royal Hallamshire, and Charles Clifford hospitals – topped with £3.25m in compensation claim damages.
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust also paid out £627,809 relating to professional negligence cases pre-dating 1995.
The figures are embarrasing for the trust, especially when a South Yorkshire Police officer is claiming compensation for £100,000 due to knee problems after a medical blunder.
His injury lawyers said that the doctors failed to realise he had developed an infection in his knee after surgery. According to the writ filed in the court, the delay left him with a stiff knee.
Mike Richmond, medical director for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have received notification of this claim and to date have denied liability.”
Among other hospitals under criticism is Sheffield Children’s Hospital, which had no claims from before 1995, but paid out £57,500 to be paid in damages.
A spokeswoman for Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said the figures related to three claims over the year.