The fifth annual report on public sector medical indemnity
claims, released today by the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, shows the number of new public sector medical indemnity
claims has fallen over the last four years.
While new claims increased from about 1,600 in 2003-04 to around
1,900 in 2005-06, they declined to around 1,300 in 2006-07.
'When adjusted for a one-off factor affecting one jurisdiction,
new claims have declined over the last four years by about 15% per
year,' said Belinda Emms, Head of the Institute's Health Care
Safety and Quality Unit.
According to the report, Medical indemnity national data
collection public sector 2006-07, medical or surgical
procedures (36%) were the most commonly recorded primary reason for
a claim, followed by diagnosis (23%) and treatment (16%).
'Examples of procedure allegations include failure to perform a
procedure, having the wrong procedure performed or performed on the
wrong part of the body, post-operative complications, or failure of
a procedure,' Ms Emms said.
'Diagnosis incidents could include a failure to diagnose or
misdiagnosis, while examples of treatment issues could include
delayed treatment, failure to provide treatment, or complications
arising from treatment,' she said.
The three most frequent clinical contexts associated with
medical indemnity claims were general surgery (18%), obstetrics
(17%) and accident and emergency (15%).
This is the first year in which obstetrics claims were surpassed
by general surgery claims.
Alleged harm to neuromusculoskeletal and movement-related
functions and structures accounted for about 20% of claims.
In 13% of claims, the subject died allegedly as a result of the
harm that gave rise to the claim.
Almost 70% of claims involved adults and 10% involved babies
younger than 1 year of age.
Almost half of claims finalised during the year listed
'discontinued' as the reason for being finalised. For the other
finalised claims, almost two-thirds were recorded as
'settled-other' which included those settled part way through a
trial. The remaining fifth were settled through a state/territory
complaints process.
Fewer than 5% of all finalised medical indemnity claims were
finalised via a court decision.
Total claim size, including legal costs, was less than $100,000
for approximately 83% of finalised claims, and in excess of
$500,000 for roughly 4% of finalised claims.
Friday 23 January 2009
Further information: Ms Belinda Emms, tel. (02)
6244 1058, mob. 0409 719 184.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. (02) 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications area
for the availability of Medical indemnity
national data collection public sector 2006-07.