Helen Vernon is chief executive at NHS Resolution
The aim for NHS Resolution is to be at the forefront of best practice in the management of healthcare complaints, concerns, incidents and claim
NHS Resolution has just published Advise, Resolve and Learn: Our strategy to 2025, its blueprint from April 2022 for the next three years.
One of the four priorities is to deliver the next phase of our strategy to move claims, concerns and disputes into a neutral and less adversarial space. The new strategy builds on the work undertaken since 2017 to focus on early intervention, and avoid unnecessary court action. Learning from claims is also fundamental to our work with the NHS to prevent the same thing happening again.
We have worked hard to dispel the myths of the ‘defend, delay, deny’ mantra, which historically was levelled at the organisation. Much of the work is based on our priority of delivering fair and timely resolution, and wherever possible keeping patients and healthcare staff out of formal processes to minimise distress and cost. We have witnessed a shift in the narrative to one of collaboration, and this is as a result of the excellent work carried out by our staff, in collaboration with claimant solicitors and organisations, along with our own legal panel.
NHS Resolution settled more than 15,500 cases across all its indemnity schemes in 2020/21. We consider all of the evidence presented in the case, which is often contradictory in nature, and seek to find a fair resolution.
In the last financial year (2020/21), we settled 43.8% of claims with no payments made, which is not stated as a target we set ourselves to achieve, but is a reflection on the fact we do receive claims where we go onto find there was no harm caused as a result of negligence.
The majority of the cases that do settle (74%) are resolved pre-litigation. Only a fraction of cases proceed to trial. There are often unavoidable reasons for cases to be litigated such as the need for the court to approve a negotiated settlement—such as in the case of children and/or claimants who lack capacity—or where there is a need for the court to adjudicate on a point of law.
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