PAYOUTS for people who had limbs amputated due to botched NHS treatment hit a record high last year.
Health service bosses have spent £410m on claims from almost 700 patients since 2019 – of which £147m has been paid out in 2023.
More than a third of successful claims occurred after doctors failed to detect a condition early enough to avoid going under the knife – meaning arms or legs had to be removed later.
Another 50 were triggered by inadequate treatment, while 12 occurred after doctors were unable to perform an operation or failed simple surgical procedures.
Each of the 690 claimants since the start of 2019 has won an average of £445,000, with the grand total including legal fees for both sides – at £71 million last year.
However, seven patients who lost limbs to bacterial infections due to errors in healthcare received more than £1 million each.
Of the complaints, 85 percent had a leg amputated and the rest arms.
Personal injury lawyer John McQuater said: “An amputation is pretty much the most serious injury you can suffer and the payments reflect this.
“In many cases, claimants will earn more for this injury than their families would if the patient died, because an amputation is a life-changing injury.
“The general principle of payments is to put the patient in a position they would have been in if not for the medical negligence.”
An NHS spokesperson told The Sun: “While patient safety incidents like this are extremely rare in the NHS, one incident is one too many, and trusts are obliged to investigate and understand what happened so they can take effective action to prevent them from happening. again.”
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