Freedom of information request details
FOI request date:
The following information was requested and clarified:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please could you provide information regarding clinical negligence claims relating to elective hand and wrist surgery within NHS Trusts in England.
Where “hand surgery” is not recorded as a standalone specialty, I would be grateful if this request could include claims recorded under Plastic Surgery and Trauma & Orthopaedics, where available descriptors (e.g. primary injury, cause, or other coding fields) indicate involvement of the hand or wrist.
A. Overall dataset (elective hand/wrist claims)
1) Number of claims by year
Number of claims notified, broken down by financial year
Please provide for all available financial years (e.g. 2006/07–present)
2) Number of claims by primary cause and year
Number of claims broken down by:
Primary cause
Financial year
3) Number of claims by primary injury and year
Number of claims broken down by:
Primary injury
Financial year
4) Cost of claims by year (closed claims with damages)
Number and cost of claims, broken down by financial year
Please include:
Number of claims
Damages paid
NHS legal costs paid
Claimant legal costs paid
Total paid
5) Cost of claims by primary cause
Number and cost of claims (as above), broken down by:
Primary cause
Financial year
6) Cost of claims by primary injury
Number and cost of claims (as above), broken down by:
Primary injury
Financial year
7) Claims closed with nil damages
Number and cost of claims closed with nil damages, broken down by:
Financial year
Primary cause
Primary injury (if available)
B. Procedure-level dataset (key elective hand procedures)
If procedure-level or descriptor-based filtering is available, I would be grateful if you could:
8) Identify procedures
Identify the five most commonly represented elective hand surgery procedures by number of claims within the dataset
9) Procedure-level breakdowns
For each of these five procedures, please provide:
a) Claim volume
Number of claims notified, by financial year
b) Primary cause
Number of claims by primary cause and financial year
c) Primary injury
Number of claims by primary injury and financial year
d) Costs (closed claims with damages)
Number and cost of claims, by financial year, including:
Damages paid
NHS legal costs paid
Claimant legal costs paid
Total paid
e) Costs by cause
Number and cost of claims, by primary cause and financial year
f) Costs by injury
Number and cost of claims, by primary injury and financial year
g) Nil-damages claims (if available)
Number and cost of claims closed with nil damages
C. Clarifications
Please provide data for all available financial years (e.g. 2006/07 to most recent available year)
I understand that:
Cells with fewer than 5 may be suppressed
Claims may appear across multiple years if reopened
Notification and closure years may differ
D. Cost limit / refinement
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