Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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885.To ask the Minister for Health the total amount spent each year, and in total, for the last ten years, by the HSE in paying out legal claims or defending legal claims by patients or other claims against the HSE and provide as much detail as available on the type/category and costs of these claims and defending them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25614/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of State Authorities including the Health Service Executive. I have been informed by the SCA that the information below has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) according to the criteria below. Please note, the information set out in this response relates to HSE claims handled by the SCA only.

Response from SCA:

• The information contained in this report has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

• The figures provided in this report may differ slightly from previous reports due to claim reclassifications in the intervening period.

• HSE claims relate to claims against the HSE locations, i.e. Acute and Community settings, Section 38 service providers and the National Services and Disability sector locations. It does not contain any private scheme locations.

• Transactional amount paid per year for the period 2014 to 2023 relates to open and closed claims. It includes all fees: damages (special and general), legal and expert costs. Amounts include VAT.

• This report is correct as of 31/05/2024.

Table 1: Transactional amount paid in HSE claims for the period 2014-2023

Definitions:

National Incident Management System (NIMS): Incidents (which include claims) are reported using the “National Incident Management System”, hosted by the State Claims Agency (SCA). An incident can be a harmful Incident (Adverse Event), no harm incident, near miss, dangerous occurrence (reportable circumstance) or complaint. NIMS is the system used by the delegated authorities to fulfil their statutory requirement to report incidents to the State Claims Agency and for their own incident and risk management purposes.

Claim: A claim refers to notification of intention to seek compensation for personal injury and/or property damage where it is alleged the State was negligent. The application may be in the form of a letter of claim, an InjuriesBoard.ie application, or a written/oral request.

Transaction Reporting Year

This refers to the year that payments were issued.

Damages Payments

Can include both General Damages and Special Damages.

Plaintiff Legal Costs

Legal Costs incurred by the Plaintiff and paid by the SCA.

Agency Legal Costs

Fees paid to solicitors and barristers engaged by the SCA.

Other costs

Fees paid to experts engaged by the SCA e.g. medical experts, private investigators etc.