If we love our NHS so much in Kent & Medway, why have we sued it for more than £200 million?

Many of you throughout the covid-19 pandemic gathered in your streets, on your doorsteps, in your gardens, to pay tribute to the brave workers of the NHS, by clapping, and ringing bells, banging pots and letting off fireworks.

It’s clear we love our NHS  in Kent & Medway. We have lionised our NHS on social media during the covid-19 pandemic. Let’s not forget, it was the focus of the London Olympic opening ceremony in 2012, it is in our thoughts and prayers every night.

If Kent & Medway love its NHS so much, how come we’ve sued it for in excess of £200 million between 2014/15 and 2018/19. It’s a funny way to show our affection, don’t you think?

And the £207 million paid out between 2014/15 and 2018/19 is NOT the end of it.

There are currently 350 unresolved claims open between 2015/16 and 2018/19 across all trusts in Kent & Medway. Lets not forget the data goes up to 2018/19, so add in the remaining claims for 2019/20 and 2020/21 and the bill to NHS trusts in Kent & Medway will exceed £300 million.

Of course, there are genuine instances of negligence and malpractice. Nobody would argue NHS practitioners and staff in Kent or Medway are infallible.

Just remember, Harry Richford died seven days after his birth at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, in November 2017. An investigation into the maternity service recently found “recurrent safety risks” at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

Yet away from the genuine cases there has been a steady growth in litigation over many years. This suggests more than a failure to maintain standards — it speaks of an opportunist culture, driven by elements of the legal profession, ambulance chasing in its most literal sense.

When Kent & Medway NHS Hospital Trusts are finished with coronavirus what will the additional bill be?

We can bang pots and pans, clap, and cheer our brave NHS frontline workers, some who died to save others here in Kent and beyond, but will the system next be drowning in allegations of negligence and poor responses from overwhelmed wards trying to get the elderly back out into care homes, not waiting for their covid-19 test results? ‘Give it few months,’ a senior frontline doctor of one Kent NHS Trust warned, darkly.

The Shepwayvox Team

Dissent is Essential to Any Democracy.