Claims in excess of $500,000 constituted less than 3% of all
finalised medical indemnity claims in the public and private
sectors in 2005-06, according to a report released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
'About 67% of claims that were settled were settled for less
than $100,000, and 43% were settled for less than $10,000,' said
Jenny Hargreaves, Senior Executive of the AIHW's Economics and
Health Services Group.
In almost 20% of finalised claims, no payment was made or costs
incurred.
'The proportion of claims settled for less than $100,000
decreased from 77% to 67% between 2004-05 and 2005-06, and the
proportion of claims where no payment was made increased from
almost 13% to just over 19%,' Ms Hargreaves said.
Adults were the subjects of the majority of claims (62%). Babies
were the subject of about 6% of new claims, while around 5% of
claims related to children. For about 28% of claims, the age of the
claimant was not available.
According to the report, Public and private sector medical
indemnity claims in Australia 2005-06: a summary, the most
common incident type or allegation leading to a new claim was
'procedure' (33.9%), followed by 'diagnosis' (21.4%) and
'treatment' (11.2%).
Examples of 'procedure' allegations could include failure to
perform a procedure; having the wrong procedure performed; having a
procedure performed on the wrong part of the body; post-operative
complications; and failure of a procedure.
Diagnosis incidents could include failure to diagnose or
misdiagnosis.
Treatment issues could include delayed treatment, failure to
provide treatment, and complications arising from treatment.
'Claims citing movement-related functions and structures
(neuromusculo-skeletal), such as loss of function resulting from
inappropriate casting of a joint, or restricted blood flow causing
nerve damage, were the most commonly recorded new claims (18%),' Ms
Hargreaves said.
The next most common category for new claims (16%) was functions
and/or structures of the digestive, metabolic and endocrine systems
(injury to gall bladder, bowel or pancreas) followed by injury to
the reproductive organs, kidneys or bladder (10.5%).
This is the second AIHW report to combine Australian public and
private sector medical indemnity claims data. AIHW will continue to
work with stakeholders to improve the usefulness of this
reporting.
Friday 8 August 2008
Further information: Ms Jenny Hargreaves, AIHW,
02 6244 1121 or mobile 0407 012 520.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for the availability of Public and private
sector medical indemnity claims in Australia 2005-06: a
summary.