Forty insurance claims were lodged against non-consultant hospital doctors working in Irish hospitals over the past four years for surgical errors, including the removal of wrong body parts and operations on wrong body parts, the Irish Medical Times reports today.
The figures are based on a study carried out by St Paul Insurance, the company which covers almost 4,000 doctors. It found 950 claims against the doctors were processed by the company's claims department since 1997. These emerged from several thousand incidents reported. Five of the reported incidents had resulted in the death of a patient.
Over 50 claims were lodged for complications arising out of surgery such as perforation and nerve injuries. The average payouts in these cases and in cases where wrong body parts were removed was £26,000. The low level of compensation is because claims would also have been made against the hospitals and consultants, with the junior doctor possibly playing a minor role in the mishap.