FOI reveals two Northamptonshire NHS trusts paid out a combined £19.5m in damages for misdiagnosis errors
Northamptonshire's two main hospital trusts have paid out a combined £19.5 million in misdiagnosis-related medical negligence claims over the past six years, new data shows.
Figures obtained through a series of Freedom of Information requests by Medical Negligence Assist reveal that 78 misdiagnosis claims were lodged against the trust between 2019/20 and 2024/25.
Of those, 67 cases were successfully settled, with the trust paying out a total of £7,575,934 in damages. This equates to an average compensation of £113,074 per successful claimant.
A deep dive into the yearly data for Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust reveals that compensation costs peaked during the 2023/24 financial year, while the volume of lodged claims also reached its highest point in the same year:
- 2019/20: 10 claims lodged (£1,473,333 paid)
- 2020/21: 12 claims lodged (£1,090,450 paid)
- 2021/22: 11 claims lodged (£722,190 paid)
- 2022/23: 17 claims lodged (£1,426,658 paid)
- 2023/24: 20 claims lodged (£2,394,739 paid)
- 2024/25: 8 claims lodged (£468,564 paid)
When compared to the other main trust in Northamptonshire, Northampton General Hospital's total payout was lower. Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust paid out a total of £12,015,811 over the same period, despite having fewer lodged claims (65). Together, Northamptonshire's two main hospital trusts have paid out a combined £19.5 million.
To put this into perspective, a comparison with trusts from each of Northamptonshire's neighbouring counties shows how Northampton General's £7.5 million compensation bill compares regionally. It trailed the highest-paying trusts in most surrounding counties, including:
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (Lincolnshire): £19,298,498
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (Leicestershire): £16,741,668
- North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (Cambridgeshire): £15,596,447
- Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (Buckinghamshire): £14,945,325
- Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Bedfordshire): £11,072,315
However, Northampton's compensation bill was higher than the payouts recorded by the primary trusts in Northamptonshire's other neighbouring counties:
- Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Oxfordshire): £5,133,413
- George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust (Warwickshire): £2,556,898
Sophie Cope, a solicitor at Medical Negligence Assist, said the data highlights an ongoing concern.
“These figures point to a troubling pattern, where delays in diagnosis can lead to serious, life-altering outcomes for patients,” she said.
The Human Cost of Diagnostic Errors
Tracey McGrann’s story is a harrowing face of this growing national crisis. The Birkenhead mum-of-three was just 54 when she died suddenly in her sleep in May 2024 following a missed diagnosis.
Months prior, Tracey visited her GP with chest pains. An abnormal ECG resulted in an urgent instruction to attend A&E.
Despite a blinding fear of hospitals, she attended Arrowe Park Hospital, where another ECG was taken. Within minutes, doctors discharged her, insisting everything was 'fine.'
Following her mother's tragic death from ischemic heart disease (IHD), her grieving daughter Leah, 25 - who was forced to give up her career to raise her teenage sister - made a shocking discovery.
A memory popped up on her mother's phone: a photo Tracey had taken of the A&E ECG monitor before being discharged. It clearly read: ‘moderate T-wave abnormality, consider anterior ischemia’.
Armed with this evidence, Leah confronted the hospital trust and discovered the ECG was never signed off, and with Arrowe Park not keeping copies of ECG results, Tracey's photograph was the only paper trail.
"If they just looked at the ECG mum would’ve been on some pathway to receiving treatment. One director stated that if he was on duty that night, my mum would have been admitted," Leah told Medical Negligence Assist.
"In the meeting my mum was reduced to a ‘mistake’. How many grieving family members haven't investigated the death of a loved one and not caught that they died as a result of a misdiagnosis error?”
A £1.2 Billion National Toll
Nationally, the true scale of diagnostic errors paints a grim picture. A total of 9,989 misdiagnosis claims were lodged against NHS trusts across the country over the six-year period.
In total, 7,500 claims were settled nationally, costing the health service £1,236,646,418, with an average payout of £164,886 per successful claimant.
While numbers dipped during the pandemic, they have now surged to a six-year high of 1,922 new claims in the 2024/25 financial year alone. Over the six-year period, the national financial toll broke down as follows:
- 2019/20: £170,678,198
- 2020/21: £123,333,640
- 2021/22: £205,156,280
- 2022/23: £240,921,060
- 2023/24: £230,627,373
- 2024/25: £265,929,667
Medical Negligence Assist offers expert legal support and advice to those affected by a misdiagnosis. You can book a free consultation or call their 24-hour helpline by visiting their website.
https://www.medicalnegligenceassist.co.uk/misdiagnosis-claims